Ebony Heaven
by Shika.EXE
Summary: This is my own little version of Blues' (Protoman) life.
1. Memories of the Crimson One

OK, guys. This is my first Rockman fanfiction. Some things to keep in mind when reading: I use, and only use, Japanese names. So you won't be seeing any Mega's, Bass's, etc. I only use Protoman in this story because it's an essential piece. This is the first chapter, and I'm still deciding on what style to use to write it - that's up to you guys! R & R, please, and be sure to include what style you prefer - is this style good, or do you want the conventional way (written like a real novel)? Some other things to point out - I started formulating this story long before I knew the _real_ story of Rockman, so some elements are so different from the real story it's not even funny. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

**Chapter 1 - Memories of the Crimson One**

  
  
Everyone has a tale to tell. One about their lives, an account of how well they lived...or one of how they were fortunate enough to have a little bit of both good and bad intermingled in their existences. Or maybe they have lived a terrible life, one full of regret, anger, pain, and anguish. 

I am the latter. I have lived that life so full of anguish, pain, anger...and...  
  
Regret.  
  
The thing that eats you alive, so terribly blinds you that you can't tell up from down anymore. It tortures you to the very point of insanity.  
  
And I am filled with it. It hurts me, worse than anything Dr. Wily could have ever inflicted.  
  
Wily...  
  
...............  
  
And so where shall I begin my tale? What should I divulge upon first? Should I start from the end and work backwards, or should I start in the middle and separate in two different directions?   
  
No...  
  
I think I will be conventional. I will start from the beginning, from my very first memories. I will tell my tale, from beginning to end.  
  
  
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
  
It was...what was it? The very first feeling I ever had...it seems so long ago. Yes...I think it was...  
  
Comfort.  
  
It was cold and frightening...but at the same time I was unafraid, because there was someone holding me. Someone who wouldn't let any harm come to me. She was beautiful, with large emerald green eyes and sandy blonde hair. She smiled at me and made me feel safe. I blinked, unsure of myself.  
  
My...self? Was this me? Who was I?  
  
A word seemed to appear in my mind as I looked at this woman.  
  
_Human_...  
  
followed closely by  
  
_Female_.  
  
Human. Female. This was a human female. 

**---ANALYZING: HUMAN---  
CLASSIFICATION:  
MAMMAL.  
WARM-BLOODED. TWO-GENDER.  
INTELLIGENCE LEVEL: HIGHEST  
**

What...did that mean? Confused...what am I? 

**---SYSTEM SCAN INITIATING---  
..............  
..............  
SCAN COMPLETE.  
ANALYSES OF DRN000  
CLASSIFICATION: ROBOT  
AGE: 0 YRS. 0 MOS. 0 WKS. 0 DYS. 0 HRS. 10 MINS.  
STATUS: STABLE/FUNCTIONING  
**

Robot...what is that? What is this voice in my mind?  
  
I wanted to ask this female. I tried to but...I didn't know how to speak her language. That was not in my programming. So I attempted to communicate with her in Machine Language, the language of ro--  
  
......  
  
...of androids. Ah...to clear this up...Machine Language. Hmm...analogy, analogy....ah! It is what a modem speaks when it is dialing up.  
  
I asked this female, "Who are you? Who am I? What am I?" I had so many questions to ask...  
  
At first I thought that she could understand me, because she was smiling from ear to ear. Shouts were heard, and two other humans came rushing up to the woman and me. Startled, I pulled back, tried to hide myself in this woman's chest. But alas, I hadn't hidden well enough, for I was picked up by one of the other humans. This was not a female human - it looked different.  
  
Two-gender...of course! This human was male, as was his colleague.  
  
The man who had picked me up grinned at me. It was a kind and warm grin; it made me feel at ease. I relaxed. This man was not harmful, and so I should not harm him.  
  
A sharp sensation in my mind - 

**RULES OF ROBOTICS  
1 - NEVER CAUSE HARM TO ANY HUMAN  
**

Rules...yes, never harm any human. That was bad. Harming a human meant going against my programming. Unheard of.  
  
The man with the kind smile had black hair with a matching beard, but the color was beginning to fade; his eyes were sapphire, and gentle. The other man had eyes as black as pitch, with brown hair in a style difficult to describe. They were talking, but I couldn't understand them. It must have shown, because the brown-haired man slapped his forehead, laughed, and then reached behind my head. He flicked a switch, and a fog was cleared from my mind. Now I knew what the humans were saying.  
  
"I can't believe we forgot to activate his speech recognition!"  
  
"Caught up in the moment, I suppose." A strange accent - it sounded German.  
  
"Yes, you boys have accomplished quite a feat - the first human-like robot in history!"  
  
"I know...it's wonderful!"  
  
"We'll be famous, Albert!"  
  
Albert. That was the name of the brown-haired man.  
  
"Yes, Thomas!"   
Thomas. The name of the bearded man.  
  
"Carrie, go and call Sarah down here!"  
  
Carrie. The name of the beautiful woman. 

**---ANALYZING: THOMAS---  
THOMAS XAVIER LIGHT.  
SPECIES: HUMAN  
GENDER: MALE  
AGE: 40 YRS.  
EYES: BLUE  
HAIR: BLACK  
HEIGHT: 5 FT. 4 IN.  
WEIGHT: 200 LBS.  
STATUS: CREATOR  
  
  
---ANALYZING: ALBERT---  
ALBERT W. WILY.  
SPECIES: HUMAN  
GENDER: MALE  
AGE: 43 YRS.  
EYES: BLACK  
HAIR: BROWN  
HEIGHT: 5 FT. 5 IN.  
WEIGHT: 175 LBS.  
STATUS: CO-CREATOR  
  
  
---ANALYZING: CARRIE---  
CARRIE MAY LIGHT.  
SPECIES: HUMAN  
GENDER: FEMALE  
AGE: 35 YRS.  
EYES: GREEN  
HAIR: BLONDE  
HEIGHT: 5 FT. 3 IN.  
WEIGHT: 130 LBS.  
STATUS: WIFE  
  
  
---ANALYZING: SARAH---  
SARAH EDITH WILY.  
SPECIES: HUMAN  
GENDER: FEMALE  
AGE: 38 YRS.  
EYES: CRIMSON  
HAIR: VIOLET  
HEIGHT: 4 FT. 11 IN.  
WEIGHT: 160 LBS.  
STATUS: WIFE  
  
  
**

A clamor from upstairs, the sound of running feet.  
  
"What? What is it, Albert? have you and Thomas finally done it?"  
  
She was a portly little woman. She approached me and smiled.  
  
"He's very cute. Looks just like Carrie." Then she went over to Albert, hugged him, and congratulated both him and Thomas, who had set me down on the floor. Carrie kept a watchful eye on me, but I couldn't go anywhere. I didn't know how to walk. I watched the humans doing it, and it seemed strange to me. But I wanted to learn. I wanted to learn everything they knew.  
  
A movement nearby. I looked up and into the face of a small human child, who seemed uncertain of me, as if I were going to jump up and attack him; he peered at me with wide eyes. 

**---ANALYZING CURRENT SUBJECT---  
XAVIER DANIEL WILY.  
SPECIES: HUMAN  
GENDER: MALE  
AGE: 2 YRS.  
EYES: CRIMSON  
HAIR: BROWN  
HEIGHT: 2 FT. 4 IN.  
WEIGHT: 40 LBS.  
STATUS: NONE  
**

This was the son of Albert and Sarah. He resembled his mother very much.  
  
"H-hi..."   
An invitation to talk. I tried as hard as I could, and Carrie laughed in amusement. I suppose I must have put on a strange face while trying to speak. But no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't do it. I became frustrated. At this, Carrie peered intently at me.  
  
"Thomas...look at this."  
  
"What is it, dear?"  
  
"The prototype...he's showing emotion!"  
  
"Oh?" He leaned down close to me and looked into my face. "Why...you're right! He looks upset...what was he trying to do just now?"  
  
"I'm not sure, but it looked like he was trying to talk."  
  
"Incredible...amazing...so lifelike! Just like a real human child!" He called Albert over, and he was impressed as well.  
  
"We've outdone ourselves, Thomas. All these years of trying to create the perfect AI...no one will dare mock us again!"  
  
"Perfect? Oh, no, Albert, he is hardly from perfect. He's just the prototype, after all. But by studying him and his growth patterns, we'll be able to actually create the perfect AI at long last."  
  
This angered Carrie. She picked me up and held me close.  
  
"How could you, Thomas? This is your creation! He's like your son!"  
  
Thomas shifted, uncomfortable; he stood up.  
  
I was starting to dislike this Thomas. What he was trying to say was that I did not matter, I was only the blueprints for another ro-  
  
.........  
  
android.  
  
"But he has feelings, Thomas! You saw it yourself!"  
  
".......yes, you're right, I suppose."  
  
Now Albert seemed angry, too.  
  
"I totally agree with Carrie, Thomas. We should treat him as a son. If we want to get the best results for the next robot, we need to treat him like a part of the family."  
  
Thomas threw up his hands. "Alright. We'll do that, then."  
  
"Well, he needs a name, doesn't he? We can't just call him "prototype"...what should we name him?"  
  
This deemed a mystery to the humans - they couldn't decide on what to name me.  
  
As for myself, I still hadn't gotten answers to my questions, so I decided to take matters into my own hands. I tried talking to that little voice that told me information. I told it to tell me everything it knew.  
  
And it did.  
  
It told me that I was an android created by Doctors Thomas Light and Albert Wily. That I was the very first of my kind - a prototype for all other droids after me. That an android was a machine that closely resembled humans, but had no emotion. That I was programmed to obey Dr. Light and Dr. Wily. That I had ten Rules of Robotics that I had to adhere to. It told me everything about me, about my system, my function, programs within me, everything. But when I asked it what my purpose was, it didn't have an answer. _Illogical question,_ it said.  
  
Illogical...?  
  
And why, if I was something that wasn't supposed to have emotion, did I experience it? Was it an error in my programming? A bug, a flaw?  
  
_Data unknown._  
  
Unknown...?  
  
Now I was even more confused. I decided to set goals for myself. The first goal was to be to learn how to speak human language. The second...well, that would be to walk. I figured if I was going to be more human, I would have to act like it.  
  
But I had no idea that trying to be human would be so difficult. 


	2. Human Android

Here's Chapter 2! In this chapter, Blues is trying to be more human. Note: When Blues talks about how difficult learning human language is and how there are so many characters, he's talking about learning to speak, read, and write Japanese, since _Rockman_ is from Japan; the characters would be speaking Japanese, not English. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

**Chapter 2 - Human Android**

It's not easy to be an android trying to be a human in a human's world. There are so many different things - actions, feelings, and whatnot - that can inhibit your progress. For instance, human speech - it was the most difficult thing that I tried to learn. So many sounds, characters.....just trying to write the language was hard enough. There were many instances where I just about gave up. But something drove me to try again and again. Maybe it was Uncle Albert pressing me on, encouraging me. Or maybe it was the fact that my own father didn't believe in me. I wanted to prove him wrong - he thought that I was just a ro-  
  
......android, that wasn't capable of doing the things that humans could do. He was also confused - he could have _sworn_ that he had programmed a human speech module into me, so why wasn't it working? Everyday he would poke and prod at me, trying to find out what the problem was.  
  
Uncle Albert had more common sense than Father did. One day, I was just about in tears because I still couldn't talk, read, and write. I was already two years old, and although I had finally learned to walk, I still couldn't do the other simple things that humans could do; Xavier could speak. He was even learning to read - why couldn't I? Uncle Albert approached and knelt down in front of me. I looked up at him through sorry green optics; he smiled at me and said,  
  
"You are still having trouble, yes?" I nodded.  
  
"Well, I think I can help you with that problem. Okay?" I sniffed and nodded, grateful.  
  
Out of the two of them, Father and Uncle Albert, it was Uncle Albert who was more like my father. Maybe it was because Uncle Albert already had a son, and he knew how to handle children. Father and Mother didn't have children; they couldn't have children because of Father. He was...incapable of having them. So he did the next best thing - created a son. But he surely wasn't treating me as his son, more like what I really was - his creation.  
  
Uncle Albert helped me up, and I followed him into the laboratory, in the basement. He had me sit up on a cold, steel table. I was getting a little nervous, another feeling I had discovered. But Uncle Albert's gentle smile reassured me, and I felt a little less nervous.  
  
"I want you to ask your CPU to do a full system scan. Check for any and all programs and protocols listed," said Uncle Albert. "When the scan is done and you are given a list, read it to me."  
  
I nodded, and said, "Full system scan - subject DRN000."  
  
**---INITIATING...---  
....................  
....................  
....................  
SCAN COMPLETE. LIST ALL RESULTS?**  
  
"No, only .EXE and .PRO."  
  
**---LISTING...---  
EXECUTABLES  
EMOT.EXE  
HYPER.EXE  
PWRMNGMNT.EXE  
STARTUP.EXE  
SYSCHK.EXE  
SYSSCN.EXE  
SHUTDOWN.EXE  
  
  
PROTOCOLS  
EMOT.PRO  
HYPER.PRO  
PWRMNGMNT.PRO  
STARTUP.PRO  
SYSCHK.PRO  
SYSSCN.PRO  
SHUTDOWN.PRO  
  
END LIST**  
  
"Well?"  
  
I started to read off the list, and wondered how in the world Uncle Albert could understand me. To him, and any other human for that matter, my speech should have sounded like a bunch of pings. But he understood me. I stopped reciting the list, and looked around. Next to me was some sort of machine. Perplexed, I said another executable. I watched, amazed, as words came up on the small LCD display - human words. Although I could not read the yet, I understood that Uncle Albert could translate my Machine Language to his human tongue! Incredible. I was impressed and grateful.  
  
Uncle Albert chuckled and said, "I'm going to assume that you understand what this machine does, so carry on with the rest of the list, please."  
  
I did just that. After I was finished, Uncle Albert stood in front of me, chin in hand, perplexed.   
  
"Hmmm....I could have sworn that Thomas said he had put in that module. But if the list you just told me is correct, then it looks like he forgot to put it in."  
  
I must have looked angry, because Uncle Albert waved his hands.  
  
"Oh, no, don't take it personally. Your father has a tendency to be rather absent-minded at times. He most likely just did forget to put your language module in, but thought that he did That's all right - we'll just install one for you now."  
  
I nodded and smiled. "Thank you, Uncle Albert!" I said. He smiled and patted me on the head.  
  
"You're quite welcome, little one. That is why your father and I make such a great team - he does most of the creating, and I do most of the programming. I also do what he forgets to do, such as in this situation." He walked over to a tall closet and opened it. Inside were hundreds upon hundreds of different chips, all neatly organized. Uncle Albert searched through the shelves, picked up a chip, and examined it. When he was satisfied, he came back over to me.  
  
"Now then, in order to install this, I'm going to have to deactivate you for a short period. When I reactivate you, you will be able to speak, read, and write in 100 different human languages."  
  
I stared. _100 different human languages?!_ I couldn't believe there were that many - I had thought there was just one universal language! It seemed that I had a lot more to learn about humans.  
  
Then there was that other word - _deactivate_. I knew what that word meant - it meant that I would essentially die. But Uncle Albert _had_ said that he would reactivate me...and I trusted him. I looked at him, and lay down on the table, without him ordering me to. Uncle Albert usually didn't have to tell me to do something for him - it was like I somehow knew what he wanted me to do. Once I was situated properly on the table, Uncle Albert opened up a control panel on my right arm, waved at me, and flipped a switch, which ran the "SHUTDOWN.EXE" program.  
  
**---SYSTEM SHUTDOWN INITIATING---  
READING PWRMNGMNT.PRO  
READING SHUTDOWN.PRO  
................  
................  
SHUTTING DOWN EMOT.EXE  
SHUTTING DOWN HYPER.EXE  
SHUTTING DOWN STARTUP.EXE  
SHUTTING DOWN SYSCHK.EXE  
SHUTTING DOWN SYSSCN.EXE**  
  
After my emotions program was shut down, I lost all sense of emotion. It was strange.  
  
**SHUTTING DOWN PWRMNGMNT.EXE**  
  
And then the world went black.  
  
  
**---SYSTEM STARTUP INITIATING---  
READING PWRMNGMNT.PRO  
READING STARTUP.PRO  
................  
................  
LOADING EMOT.EXE  
LOADING HYPER.EXE  
LOADING SYSCHK.EXE  
LOADING SYSSCN.EXE  
LOADING SHUTDOWN.EXE  
  
NEW MODULE DETECTED!  
LANG.MOD  
OPEN?**  
  
"Y-yes..."  
  
**OPENING LANG.MOD...  
LOAD LANG.PRO?**  
  
"Yes."  
  
**LOAD LANG.EXE?**  
  
"Yes."  
  
**READ LANG.PRO?**  
  
This was it - the moment of truth.  
  
"Yes."  
  
**READING LANG.PRO....  
...............  
...............  
RUNNING LANG.EXE**  
  
A new sensation overwhelmed me. I could feel the program running, and I couldn't wait to test it. It was giving my CPU all sorts of information. I wanted to say something. I wanted to say something that expressed my gratitude to Uncle Albert. I opened my mouth, and Uncle Albert watched me intently.  
  
"Thank you."  
  
My eyes widened. _I had spoken._ Uncle Albert smiled widely.  
br "You are quite welcome, little one. Let's further test your new program, yes?"  
  
I grinned. _"Yes!"_  
  
"Good! Now then, I'm going to show you a paper with words on it. I want you to read me the paper, understand?"  
  
I nodded, and Uncle Albert handed me a sheet of paper. It was a poem. I looked at the characters whose meanings had eluded me for so long. They were so easy to understand - how was it that I had thought they were so difficult? I began to read aloud.  
  
_"Kokutan no Itten _["Ebony Heaven"]  
_Watashi no himitsu..._ [My secret...]  
_Watashi no kurai no mimoto..._ [My dark past...]  
_Hidoi..._ [Terrible...]  
_Itami hidoi..._ [Terrible pain...]  
_Watashi wa kanashii..."_ [I am sad...]   
  
This poem...it was so full of sorrow. I looked at the date - circa 1850. An incredibly old poem, considering it was 20XX. No author was listed. _Whoever it was that wrote this must have been a tortured soul,_ I thought. So caught up was I in my own thoughts that I didn't even realize Uncle Albert talking to me.  
  
"Huh? Oh...sorry, Uncle Albert. I was thinking."  
  
"Oh, that's perfectly all right. But you're doing it - you're talking! And you read that poem flawlessly! Wonderful job - now we know for sure that the module is operational. Shall we go and show off to the others?" he grinned.  
  
My grin matched his. "Yeah!"  
  
Together we walked upstairs and into the rec room, where everyone was just lounging around. It was Mother who first saw us.  
  
"Oh...Big Brother, and..." She trailed off; they still hadn't come up with a name for me, in the two years I had been running.  
  
Go figure.  
  
I frowned slightly at this, but then Uncle Albert nudged me.  
  
"Go on," he whispered. "Say something."  
  
I nodded, then looked at everyone in the room - Father, Mother, Aunt Sarah, and my cousin, Xavier.  
  
Xavier and I had become very close after spending two years with each other. He had even given me a nickname, derived from my Mechanic's Code - DRN000.  
  
"Hey, Zero! Wheredja go to?"  
  
I gave a half-smile and said, "Oh, just downstairs to the lab."  
  
The look on everyone's faces was priceless, as were their reactions. Father's mouth was hanging open, Mother had clapped both hands to her mouth, Aunt Sarah had put a hand to her heart, and Xavier grinned widely.  
  
"Hey, wow! You talked!!" I nodded and smiled.  
  
"Yeah - Uncle Albert installed a language module in me." Father approached us.  
  
"A-albert...you...?"  
  
"Yes, Thomas. You forgot to install one in him."  
  
"Oh..." He chuckled. "Absent-mindedness again...sorry," he said to me, with a lop-sided grin. "Well...glad you can talk now!" I nodded.  
  
"And I can write and read, too. In fact, I am able to write, read, and speak in 100 languages, including Chinese, French, Spanish, and English." Xavier gaped. I grinned proudly, and then turned to him. I had given him a nickname as well...in fact, I called him by it every time we were together. But he had never been able to understand me, of course. Now he could.  
  
"Yes, X...pretty neat, huh?"  
"X...? Heh...you gave me a nickname, too! Cool!"  
  
"Now we can actually talk to each other," I mused, excited. Xavier grinned.  
  
"Hey, yeah! That'll be neat!" Under the watchful eyes of our family, we sat over near the couch to just talk. X asked me all sorts of questions. We had a nice time just talking, while the adults all sat around us, amazed that I made that quick of a transition from mute and illiterate to android prodigy of language.  
  
I went to bed that night feeling as if I was flying through the air, nothing holding me back.  
  
Ah...sleep. You may wonder, how is that possible? Androids don't sleep. No, we don't, but we do go into an idle state, where we recharge our energy so that we can function properly the next day. It's like sleep in that respect - we put our systems on hiatus until we get a full eight hours worth of recharging.  
  
Anyway.  
  
The next day, I was sitting in the big arm chair in the rec room, when all of a sudden I heard the strangest sound. It was high-pitched, but it didn't sound bad. In fact, it sounded pleasant. Intrigued, I got up and looked for the source. When I got into the hall, I bumped right into Xavier.  
  
"Oof! Oh, hey, Zero! What's up?"  
  
"It...stopped."  
  
"What stopped?"  
  
"That noise...it sounded weird. High-pitched or something."  
  
Xavier looked at me for a moment, scratched his head, and then brightened.  
  
"Oh! Did it sound like this?"  
  
He pursed his lips, and blew air out of them. I heard the noise again - it had Xavier who had been making it. I jumped back, surprised. Xavier stopped and giggled. Confused, I stared at him.  
  
"What _was_ that?" I asked him. He grinned.  
  
"It's called whistling. Pretty nifty, huh? Want me to teach you how?"  
  
"Um...sure."  
  
"Okay! Here's what you do - just put your lips together like this...and then you blow! Simple."  
  
I nodded, and tried. It took me at least 20 minutes, in which Xavier spent laughing hysterically at my face - it must have looked strange, me trying to blow air from my mouth, my cheeks puffed out and lips pursed. An interesting sight, I'm sure.  
  
I was becoming frustrated. Annoyed, I clenched my hands into fists and blew as hard as I could. Scared myself half to deactivation when the shrillest whistle came from me. I jumped and clapped my hands over my mouth. I looked over at Xavier - his eyes were shut tight and his hands were over his ears. When he didn't hear my shrill whistle again, he looked up at me.  
  
"Okay...that was good. Just try and tone the volume down, okay? Try it again."  
  
I did, again and again, until I perfected my whistle.  
  
"Great! Now try and make a tune out of it," Xavier told me. I didn't know the first thing about making music, and I told Xavier this. He thought for a minute, then snapped his fingers.   
  
"I know! We'll put the radio on, and you can listen to some music! Maybe that'll inspire you."  
  
"I hope so, X."  
  
"Don't sweat it; c'mon!" We went into the rec room and sat in front of the radio; Xavier turned it on.  
  
"Now, tell me when to stop," he instructed. I listened to station after station, but I didn't hear one song that I liked. After ten minutes of flipping through stations, Xavier was just about to call it quits.  
  
That's when I heard the most beautiful music.  
  
"X! Stop!!!" I shouted.  
  
"Huh? Oh!" He stopped at the station.  
  
"What kind of music is this?" I asked, bewildered. He listened to the song for a little.  
  
"This? I think it's called blues," he answered. "Why?"  
  
"I like it," I said simply. "It's...calming. It makes me feel good." Suddenly, a tune popped into my head, and I began to whistle it.  
  
There isn't an android nor Reploid activated to this very day that doesn't know that tune. Every time it is heard, I am always thought of. For it is the tune that I whistle whenever I appear to help those who are in danger; it is the tune to let my little brother know that I am nearby. It is my theme song, my trademark.  
  
That song is my very soul...if an Android could ever _have_ a soul.  
  
I didn't even realize until I heard applause that I had attracted an audience. Surprised, I looked up - the entire family had heard me, and had come to see what all the whistling was. By this time, I was used to all the attention; I stared blankly at everyone.  
  
"Was that...you?" asked Father; I nodded. "Amazing...absolutely incredible..." he muttered.  
  
"It sounded like blues," remarked Aunt Sarah.  
  
"Yeah," said Xavier, "he likes blues a lot. We were flipping through radio stations and he made me stop on the blues station."  
  
"Well, it was Xavier who taught me how," I explained.  
  
"Of course," Xavier replied. "That's what friends do."  
  
"F-friends...? What is that?"  
  
"A friend? A friend is somebody who cares about you, somebody you can trust in and tell everything to, and not worry about it 'cause they'll never tell. A friend is someone who you can share stuff with, talk to, and..." he added with a sly smile, "...teach stuff to."  
  
"A friend is all of this?" I asked. "It sounds like a wonderful thing," I added wistfully. "But I guess only humans can have friends...right?" Xavier shook his head.  
  
"No. We're friends, you and me," he said.  
  
"We...are?"  
  
"Of course!" He smiled.  
  
That sentence made me feel more human than I had ever felt by speaking, reading, and writing. It made me feel wanted and loved. It was the best feeling I had ever experienced.  
  
"Hmm...interesting," said Uncle Albert afterwards. "I think I've just come up with a name for our little nameless android here."  
  
"Really?" asked Mother. "What?"  
  
"Blues." 


	3. And Then There Were Seven

Chapter 3 is up! Before I go on and give the summary, I'd just to say "Thanks so much" to all of you who have given me reviews! ^_^ You guys totally rock!! And now the summary: It has been one year since Blues has learned to speak. Dr. Light thinks it's time for some more assistance around the house, and he and Dr. Wily get to inventin'! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

**Chapter 3 - And Then There Were Seven**

So now I was no longer "the prototype," which was the only thing that Father ever referred to me as. He said it so often that I winced each time I heard it. But thanks to Uncle Albert, I now had a name - Blues. It took him a few days to remember it and get it right, but once he did, Father was great on calling me by "Blues."  
  
He was also great on giving me loads of work to do around the house, something that angered Mother and Uncle Albert.  
  
"Blues, could you help me over here? I need this turned to the left. When you're done there, can you wash the windows, polish the furniture, dust the rooms, do the dishes and the laundry, and vacuum the house and lab?"  
  
This went on all the time. All the work really depleted my energy reserve, and each night I went to bed feeling totally exhausted, only to wake up the next morning still tired, because I hadn't fully recharged all the way. Since I wasn't fully recharged, my performance levels were unusually low. And then Father would wonder why I would suddenly shut down in the middle of doing a task.  
  
Some people.  
  
My status was starting to concern Uncle Albert - he could see that I was dead tired all the time; anyone with half a brain (or one who wasn't absent-minded) could. Finally, Mother talked to Father after I had fallen asleep standing up while vacuuming.  
  
"This can't continue, Thomas! You didn't build Blues to be a slave! Look at him - he can't go on like this; he'll deactivate by Christmas! And besides, he hasn't reached his full height yet - the vacuum is as tall as he is!"  
  
"Perhaps you're right, love. All right, I'll call Albert down here and we'll start inventing some help."  
  
"Good," said Mother in a huff. And with that she picked me up, carried me into my room, laid me on the bed, and finished the house work with Aunt Sarah.  
  
Yes, I had, or rather _have_ my own room; we all do. There were several guest rooms in Light Labs -- I have no idea why; we never really got any visitors; we still don't. Maybe they were rooms for all the children Father and Mother were going to have. Oh wait, they _couldn't_ have children. And what's up with Father calling the place "Light Labs"? He should have included Uncle Albert's name in there, too, maybe like Wily-Light Labs or something...  
  
............  
  
No, I'm not bitter, not bitter at all.  
  
Anyway, Light Labs had several guest rooms, one of which Mother and Aunt Sarah transformed into a room for me. In fact, they had done this several months before I was activated.  
  
Now there's planning for you.  
  
As soon as Uncle Albert arrived at the Labs, he and Father got to work. Father thought about the very first creation, and started to draw up the basic sketch of its appearance. By this time, I had recuperated and was interested in what was going on - Father and Uncle Albert were essentially creating my new siblings; it was very exciting, and I wanted to watch them. Since Mother had finished all the house work along with Aunt Sarah, I was able to hang around Uncle Albert and Father as they invented. As Father drew up the schematics, I pulled myself up on the back of his chair and peered over his shoulder. This first creation was strange-looking - it was red and white, with a human-like body. But it had a giant pair of scissors on top of its head. I watched as Father thought, then picked up his pencil again and wrote this new android's name -  
  
_DRN003 - Cutman_  
  
"Hey...Father?"  
  
He never looked up. "Mmm?"  
  
"Why, if my Mechanic's Code is DRN000, is Cutman's gonna be DRN003?"  
  
"Ah...that is because I have already started on DRNs 001 and 002, but they will be more complex to build and will take more time. These next few robots will be relatively easy to construct, and they should all be done within the next couple of months."  
  
_'Couple of months?'_ My face fell. I would still have to endure the hard work for just a while longer.  
  
After he was done with the sketch of Cutman, my first real brother, Father slid the paper over to Uncle Albert.  
  
"Hmmm...good design. What will he be used for?"  
  
"Cutman will be used for...well, cutting wood. He'll be a timber felling robot. He can help out during the winter, when we need firewood." He beamed; Uncle Albert and I exchanged glances.  
  
"Um...okay. I'll see what I can do with him. Get started on the next one."  
  
I was amazed at how fast Father could whip up a sketch. It took him only about two hours to come up with a final sketch for Uncle Albert to work with. Within the next few days, all the sketches for my new help were complete.  
  
Now came the harder and more involved part - actually building the droids and programming them with their interfaces. That was what took the longest. Even though I was starting to get impatient, I knew that in order for the droids to be flawless and unique, Uncle Albert needed a lot of time. So I waited. I think the only reason I held on for as long as I did was because I kept imagining what it would be like to have brothers, droids who were like me. And I was always appreciative of the help that they would lend me.  
  
Since the new droids were younger than I was, Father said that he would program them to listen to my orders as well as his. At first I thought that it would be kind of neat to have droids under me, who would listen to whatever I told them to do. But then I started thinking about myself...I didn't want to order them around, as I was. It wouldn't be fair to them. So I told Father not to program like that.  
  
"I don't want them to be my _servants_, I want them to be what they are - my _brothers_. They're just going to help with the housework, that's all."  
  
"Well...all right, Blues, I'll tell Albert to leave that module out."  
  
It was mid-July when, at long last, the new androids were complete. The whole family assembled into the rec room, where Father and Uncle Albert had set up my brothers.  
  
There were six of them - six new pairs of hands to help me, but more importantly, six new brothers for me to talk with. It wasn't as if I was getting tired of Xavier - quite the opposite. The two of us had become inseparable friends; it came to the point where I couldn't imagine life without him. It was Xavier who had made me feel the most human, and for that I was eternally grateful. He is my best friend, and I would do anything for him, as I would do for anyone in my family.  
  
"What are their names?" asked Aunt Sarah.  
  
Father went over to the android on the far left; it was Cutman. Father stood next to him and pointed to various parts of the droid as he explained.  
  
"DRN003 - Cutman. His main purpose is to fell timber. The scissor on his head here can be removed and thrown (at this last sentence everyone stared in disbelief at Father)...in order...in order to cut many trees down at once," he said, shifting as everyone stared.  
  
"Isn't that kind of...dangerous, Thomas?" asked Mother.  
  
"Oh, no," piped up Uncle Albert. "It is perfectly safe. I've installed a safety mechanism in the scissor - there's a mini radar on it that senses when the blade is getting too close to a living creature." Aunt Sarah and Mother relaxed a bit at this, and Father went to the next android.  
  
This android was extremely tall and imposing. He looked built for hard labor. He was red and yellow, with spots of black, and a jaw that stuck out. On his head was a Metool helmet.  
  
"DRN004 - Gutsman. He's a wilderness reclamation robot, and so he is extremely powerful. He can lift things that are 200 times his weight and size. Most of Guts is made out of Metool armor, so not a lot can stop him."  
  
Metools...I think everyone here knows what they are. Hard-hats, Mets...they have many names, are virtually indestructible, and annoying as hell. The only time that you could destroy one was if it came out from under its helmet - its body is just regular alloy, so it can be taken out quite easily in this state. Of course, the little buggers shoot at you when they _do_ come out, so it's best to take extreme caution. Their shots are meant to eat through metal (they're the original mini-Gutsmen), which can be dangerous for an android.  
  
Ah...I've gotten off track yet again. My apologies. As I was saying...  
  
Father had moved on to the next android. He was incredibly short, even shorter than I was. He was the most human-looking out of the six so far, and he was dressed like an Eskimo in blue furs.  
  
"DRN005 - Iceman. This little bot will be exploring the Antarctic. I've always wanted to do research there, but because it's too cold for any human to withstand, Iceman can do the research for me. Who knows what's out there? I don't, and that is why I want to find out. Maybe there's a valuable resource there, or something more...Iceman's job is to explore and find out. Consequently, he'll be in charge of keeping the house cool in summer, and will operate all machines that use cold."  
  
"Like the fridge-a-mator, Uncle Thomas?" asked Xavier. Father chuckled.  
  
"Yes, Xavier, like the _refrigerator_." He moved on. This android was short, but taller than Iceman, and stout. He, like Guts, was red and yellow, and had a red mohawk.  
  
"DRN006 - Bombman. He'll be in charge of demolition, so we can get started on that addition to the lab. We can also lend him out to other companies. If they need a building demolished, they can borrow Bomb for the job."  
  
"I don't know, Thomas," said Mother. "Isn't a bomb robot a little dangerous, too?"  
  
"Not to worry, sister," said Uncle Albert. "All of our robots are programmed with the Rules of Robotics - they will never harm humans."  
  
I could relate to that.  
  
After Bombman came a red and gray android who had a mask on that resembled a furnace. He had no real mouth, as the others did, but rather a grate that was like an oven burner.  
  
"DRN007 - Fireman. He's in charge of waste disposal (_Good,_ I thought, _now _I_ won't have to do it._), and will also help keep the house warm and cozy in the wintertime. He'll also be in charge of maintaining those machines that use heat, like the oven."  
  
Then came the last android, six out of six. He was also human-like, except that he had on a black outfit with a lightning bolt on the top half. Around his middle was a yellow belt, which matched yellow boots and wristbands. On his head was a mask with the same lightning bolt pattern as his front.  
  
"And last but not least, DRN008 - Elecman. Elec is our atomic energy controller, which means he's in charge of all the electricity in the entire lab. He's probably the most important of these six robots."  
  
He let that sink in. And then...  
  
"Well, shall we activate them now, Albert?"  
  
"Yes, I think that would be a good idea, Thomas."  
  
With that, Father and Uncle Albert each activated three of the six robots. One by one, their eyes opened for the very first time. Each of them looked around; I knew what they were thinking. It had happened to me, too, four years earlier. I smiled to myself, reminiscent.  
  
My new brothers were beginning to test out their functions. Ice had discovered that he could walk, and so the others tried it, too. Fire found that he could move his arms as well as his legs, so, following suit, the others moved their arms. Guts jumped up and down, causing the entire lab to shake; this was one thing the others did not try, fearful that they, too, would cause a mini-earthquake. Cut kept sitting down, then standing up again, with a big grin on his face - it was fun to sit down and get back up again in a quick manner. Seeing this, the others all tried it, too, Guts causing subsequent mini-earthquakes. Then Bomb fell backward on his back; stunned, he just lay there. The others copied him, falling onto their backs as well (another mini-earthquake ensued).  
  
By this time, I was laughing my head off. It was so funny to watch them, like a bunch of drunks. As they heard my laughter, each android stopped. Elec blinked, walked up to me on shaky legs, and peered at me. When I didn't hear anymore noise coming from the group, I stopped laughing and opened my eyes. Startled at seeing Elec so close to my face, I gave a yelp and jumped back, causing my frightened brother to do the same. After recovering from the initial shock, he stared at my mouth. I understood now.  
  
"It's called laughing," I explained. "And what I'm doing now is called talking. You can all do it, too."  
  
Elec slowly nodded, then opened his mouth.  
  
"T...talking. Yes, I see. It's more efficient than Mechanic's Language when talking with humans." He had a child's voice, but it sounded older than mine; probably around an eight or nine year old's voice.  
  
I nodded. "That's right."  
  
The rest of the droids gaped at Elec. Then they filled the room with five different voices, all excited.  
  
"Wow! Wowwowwowwow! I can't believe we can talk! So cool! ...er, no pun intended there!"  
  
"Sheesh, Ice, that was really bad. Look, I can lift the couch, chair, and Dr. Light all at the same time!"  
  
"Whooaaa! Put me _down_, Gutsman!"  
  
"That's _nothing!!_ Watch me, I can toss bombs at stuff!!"  
  
A shriek. "NOT IN THE HOUSE!!" _Toss, slice!_  
  
"Hey...why'd you go and do _that,_ Cut? Fire's awesome!"  
  
"Not when it causes large explosions, it's not! And besides, fire's _scary_!"  
  
"Aw, you're just sayin' that 'cause you've got an internal cooling system!"  
  
A barely audible whisper. "Oh, that's it..._THUNDER BEAM!!!_"  
  
Five cries. "IIIIIIIIIITAAAAAIIIIII!!!" [Ouucchhh!!!]  
  
Five droids falling to the ground.  
  
"Owieowieowie...that _really_ hurt..."  
  
"_Itaiiiiii..._"  
  
"_Cough, cough!!_ What the hell was _that_ for, Elec?!"  
  
"Yeah, really, you almost set Bomb's bombs off! Which might have been neat, but still..."  
  
".............ohhh, man...."  
  
"Are you okay, Blues?!"  
  
"Hey, what's wrong with you guys?"  
  
Five sets of eyes staring at Gutsman in his Metool armor.  
  
"..................do us all a favor, Guts."  
  
"Sure, Fire..."  
  
"Shut. The hell. UP!"  
  
"But..." A look of realization. "...ohh...heh...sorry."  
  
"Hmph. _All_ of you be quiet. You were starting to get rowdy. Er...all except you, Blues. Sorry - I didn't realize how close you were to me."  
  
"...yeah, okay. Here, help me up."  
  
"Sure, Blues." He grabbed my hand. That's when I frowned and pulled him down with the rest of us.  
  
"ACK! Hey...hey, guys what's with those looks? Hey, look, you were getting loud...I had to...guys...guys, c'mon..."  
  
Five matching evil grins.  
  
"We know you were trying to help...we just want to show you how much we..._appreciate_ you, Elec. _Get him!!!_"  
  
Minutes later, Elec in a pink frilly dress with matching accessories (courtesy of Mother) and a frown to go with the ensemble.  
  
It was the most fun I had ever had in my entire life. So happy was I to get these brothers...I considered myself to be the luckiest android activated. _From now on,_ I thought, _things are going to be so great!_  
  
I couldn't have been more right...and more wrong. 


	4. Crimson Becomes Green

Sorry about being a little lax with the chapters lately, guys, but Phantasy Star Online is just way to addicting! ^^;;;;; Anyhoo! In this chapter, the Blue Bomber and his sister make their appearances!!! And Blues learns more about human emotion.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

**Chapter 4 - Crimson Becomes Green**

During the next three years, Father and Uncle Albert spent most of their time down in the lab, working on their next creations - DRN001 and DRN002, our new siblings. I played a crucial role in their development, structure, and programming. This was where I, the prototype, was needed. 001 and 002 were going to be androids just like me...and when I mean just, I mean _just_ like me. These new droids were going to be as humanoid as I was, with the same functions as me. Only difference was, these two would be more advanced, since I was only the prototype. The past seven years had been used in collecting data from me, about my actions and reactions, and how I interacted with those around me. It wasn't until now, though, that Uncle Albert felt that they had collected enough information to begin building and programming, trying to decide which parts of my original programming and structure to keep, and which to not use.

  
I wasn't really sure how to feel about it all. Yes, I was getting two new siblings...but what would they be like? Would they be exactly like me...clones of me? Or would they be totally different? It was impossible to tell, because neither Father nor Uncle Albert would tell anybody anything about the new droids. Elec could tell that something was bothering me.  
  
"Blues...what's wrong? Are you OK?"  
  
"Yeah..." This got a look from Elec; he could always tell when I was lying. Out of all of us, Elec and I were the closest to each other. I sighed.  
  
"OK, OK, enough with that look...I...I'm kind f nervous about our new siblings. I mean...they're going to be bots just like me, who look as human as I do - uh, not to say that _you_ don't look human, Elec..."  
  
Elec smiled at this.  
  
"I see...so you're worried about what they'll be like. Well, if it's any condolence to you, Blues...if they _do_ turn out to be just like you, then I don't think there'll be a problem." He smiled.  
  
"Well...OK, if you say so, Elec."  
  
It wasn't until January of the year that I turned seven that the two new droids were complete. This was a special occasion, indeed. Father was more excited than he had been when _I_ was created....which I could certainly see. So excited was Father, in fact, that if Uncle Albert hadn't suggested against it, the press would have been there to watch the unveiling.  
  
"Today marks a moment in our history! I (_You?_ I thought. _What about Uncle Albert?_) have finally created the world's most perfect humanoid robots that this world has ever seen! They are so human, an unknowing person would never realize the difference! Ladies, nephew, and robots, I present to you the dawning of a new era of robots!!!" He tore the sheets covering the androids off.  
  
They really _were_ human-like. They looked as human as I did. One droid was male, but the other looked different. This one was modeled after a female human, I realized. The female droid was clothed in a red dress; she had longish blond hair (lighter than mine, which is sandy), held up in a ponytail by a green satin ribbon. Her optics were the same color sapphire as Father's. The male android could have _been_ a younger Father, he looked so much like him. Coal-black hair, matching sapphire optics...there was no doubt in my mind which of us Father was going to love the most.  
  
A pang of something in my emotions program; it hurt, bittersweet. But I had never experienced this emotion before - what was it? It made me feel hatred towards this little bot, even though I had never formally met him yet.  
  
There was also something different about these androids...  
  
They were already built (and programmed, as I soon found out) to look and act like eight-year-olds. I had been built as an infant, with special alloys that allowed me to grow like a human. A quick scan of the news droids told me that they were made out of the same material, but for whatever reason, Father had had Uncle Albert build them at this age.  
  
_Probably to overwork them, too_, I thought, and a wicked grin spread over my face. Good, make him toil like a slave. I had to, too, after all. And look at my other brothers - they had to work very hard as well.  
  
"Let me introduce to you our new family members! First I would like to start by pointing out that these two were made to be like human twins, fraternal, of course. And now!" He walked over to the male robot, the one that gave me this odd feeling.  
  
"It is my pleasure to introduce to you DRN001 - Rock! He was designed to be my little helper around the lab, so if I ever need a hand, Rock will be there for me. He is already programmed as his prototype" (I winced here, and Father got disapproving looks from the other humans) "is, and has already grown enough where he can help me! This way, we won't have to wait for years for Rock to grow up; that was one mistake we made with the prototype. He grew too slowly."  
  
_Yeah? Well, that sure as hell didn't stop you from working me half to deactivation, you bastard._  
  
_AHH!!_ Pain, incredible pain!! My head felt as if it were going to burst! I couldn't figure out why until my CPU kindly told me the following:  
  
**ERROR! ERROR! DRN000 HAS VIOLATED THE FOLLOWING RULES OF ROBOTICS:  
  
RULE #3: RESPECT YOUR CREATOR**  
  
"_Ow!!_ Son of a..." I muttered, rubbing my head, optics squeezed shut; only Elec seemed to notice...or care.  
  
"Are you OK, Blues?" he whispered, as Father kept going on and on about Rock.  
  
"Yeah," I whispered back. "_Daijoubu..._[Don't worry...] I'm fine..."  
  
"Well...OK." But he still seemed worried. Meanwhile, I turned my attention to Father, although reluctantly. He was just finishing up his talk about Rock.  
  
"...and between he and his sister, Rock is the older twin. And speaking of his sister..." He moved over to the girl droid. "Allow me to introduce Rock's twin sister, DRN002 - Roll! Get it? Rock and Roll!! Ha, ha, ha..."  
  
Nobody laughed, although Uncle Albert _did_ groan softly, mutter "Thomas..." and roll his eyes.  
  
Biter. He stole Uncle Albert's clever idea for a name. **[Author's Note: And it was here that Capcom decided to forever after associate all Rockman character names with music. Thank you. :P]**  
  
"Ah...anyway, Roll was designed to be a household bot. To put it quite simply, Roll will be the housecleaning bot, taking over all of the tasks that were formerly assigned to the other seven!"  
  
_Gee, thanks a lot, tubby, it only took you seven fricking years to make a robot like that._  
  
Another sharp, intense pain, and the same CPU message. But I didn't care.  
  
Now Father was really getting into it. "And now....for the moment you've all been waiting for!!"  
  
_More like the moment_ you've _been waiting for..._  
  
NO! Bad android, bad, bad android, going against your creator.  
  
_Shut up._  
  
Father activated Rock and Roll for the first time. As soon as I saw that sickeningly adorable smile appear on Rock's face accompanied by huge, puppydog optics, only to have an identical expression appear on Roll's, I knew one thing - life was definitely going to suck from here on out.  
  
"Rock! And Roll!! You two are awake!!"  
  
"Hello, Dr. Light!" Ugh...and such cute little voices, too. It was a good thing that I couldn't vomit, because I definitely would have been at that moment.  
  
...........  
  
And what was this?  
  
Tears in Father's eyes?  
  
Oh, come _on_ now.  
  
At first I thought he was putting on a show...but then I looked closer. No, he wasn't. The man was actually crying out of sheer joy. That feeling came back - Father hadn't cried for _me_ when _I_ was activated. What made _Rock_ so special?  
  
The special treatment of Rock continued for another two years. It was funny...in a sickening sort of way. Roll wasn't treated as well as her twin. It was apparent that Father loved her, too...but not to the extent as he did Rock. I think it must have had something to do with the similarities in their appearances, Father and Rock; they were very close to one another, much like Uncle Albert and I. We were like father and son. And in reality, that wasn't too far from the truth - Uncle Albert _had_ co-built me, after all.  
  
Rock was always at Father's side, like some faithful lap dog. I was basically left to myself, comforted only by Elec and, as always, Xavier. In fact, it happened that one day I found myself asking my old friend about the feeling that I had. As of late, it had been stronger and stronger, especially whenever I saw Rock and Father laughing together, Father tousling Rock's hair, just as a loving father does to his son.  
  
"_Ne..._[Hey...] X?"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"_Ano..._ [Um...] I've been having this weird feeling lately...and I don't know what it is."  
  
"Oh? Well, describe it to me."  
  
I had never though about explaining it to him, or anyone, before. How could I say it in a way that an eleven-year-old human boy could understand? But then I remembered - this was Xavier, my best friend. He would always understand me; he always had before. I nodded and tried to explain.  
  
"Well...I only feel it whenever I see Rock and Father together. They look so happy...Father obviously loves him more than me...more than any of us. Every time I see them, I am filled with this intense hatred, this bitter loathing. It makes me sick thinking about them...it makes me feel..." I stopped and looked down, my chest heaving with short sobs. Why did it hurt me so to talk about it? "I...know it's not fair to Rock that I should hate him...I don't even know him...but...but I..."  
  
"...but you're jealous, Blues."  
  
I looked up. "Eh?"  
  
"Jealousy. That's what you have. That's what that feeling is. You're jealous of Rock because he's getting all the attention instead of you. It's natural for older siblings to feel that way about their younger brothers or sisters at first."  
  
"But...I didn't feel like that when the others were created..."  
  
"That's because Uncle Thomas didn't shower them with extreme love like he's doing with Rock." Still seeing that I was confused, he added, "You have a dictionary programmed into you - look up 'jealous.'"  
  
"O-ok..."  
  
**SEARCHING...JEALOUS  
1 MATCH(ES) FOUND - LIST?**  
  
"Yes."  
  
**JEAL-OUS  
ADJ.  
1) FEARFUL OR WARY OF BEING REPLACED; APPREHENSIVE OF LOSING AFFECTION OR POSITION  
2) RESENTFUL OR BITTER IN RIVALRY; ENVIOUS  
END LIST**  
  
I was quiet for some time. Being jealous sounded like it was a bad thing. But Xavier had said that it was natural for siblings to feel that way, though...and I trusted Xavier. I decided to go and talk with Rock; maybe all I needed to do was to get to know him; then maybe I wouldn't feel so jealous towards him. After all, it wasn't _his_ fault that Father was showering him with love and attention.  
  
I walked around, looking for Rock, and I finally found him. But he was talking with Father. I didn't want to interrupt, so I waited in the doorway, making sure that I wasn't seen by either one. I watched as Father embraced Rock warmly; I narrowed my eyes, hurt. But that was nothing compared to what happened next.  
  
"Thank you, Rock! You don't realize what a help you've been these past two years!"  
  
"Oh, that's all right, Dr. Light! You know how much I love to help people!"  
  
Sickening. What did _he_ know about people? Some of them could be pretty rotten.  
  
"Ah, Rock, you don't know how wonderful it is to have you here with me! I feel so priveliged...my son."  
  
_Son._  
  
It wounded me like the worst jolt of electricity. And before I could stop myself, words came tumbling out like a gush of hot oil.  
  
"Son...? _Son...?_ _SON?!_ What about _us_, huh?? What are we?! You never cried when _we_ were activated! You never asked any of _us_ to be your personal assistants! You just treated us like we were nothing more than your tools, your _slaves!!!_ And look - _I_ am the original! If I wasn't here, Rock wouldn't be! I am _ashamed_ and _disgusted_ with myself for calling you 'Father'! You shower Rock with love and attention...and what do the rest of us get? We are ignored; you even treat Rock's own _twin_ the same way you treat us! Are we not your creations?! Are we not your sons as well?!"  
  
Father and Rock turned; Rock stared at me, mouth agape, some sort of expression on his face. Was it...admiration? Pity?  
  
Father looked at me, too...but it was not with admiration, nor with pity. The look on his face will forever be ingrained into my memory...for the look on his face filled me with such utter terror as I had never so experienced thus far in my activation.  
  
I would have never, ever guessed in a hundred years how agile and fast Father really was; the old saying is true - looks _can_ be deceiving. I was standing not ten feet from where he and Rock were. So terrified was I that I actually turned and started to flee - but then all of a sudden Father was there, grabbing me by the arm, pulling me back into the room, and throwing me to the ground. I landed on my rear end on the carpet with a muffled _thunk!_ Due to the human instinct programmed into me, I held up my arms in front of my face, trying to defend myself from...something. Father advanced, standing over me and boring holes through my arms and into my face with his fiery stare.  
  
"You...you ungrateful hunk of scrap metal! How _dare_ you talk to me in that manner?! I am your _creator!_ If it weren't for me, you'd still _be_ just alloys and chips!" I whimpered, shaking; I was petrified. And it didn't exactly help that my stupid ethics programming was hurting me as well, screaming at me that I had violated all sorts of rules and codes of conduct.  
  
From somehwere I found my voice again, and it came out angry and strong-willed. Shaky as hell, but tough.  
  
"Oh...oh...yeah? Well...well, maybe being just allys and chips would....would be _better_ than putting...putting up with _you!!_" I cringed, fearful of what Father would do next.  
  
Fortunatley for me, he never got the chance.  
  
  
"D-dr. Light...."  
  
A small, pitiful voice. Father wheeled around and was silent. Cautiously, I took my arms away from my face in order to see what was going on.  
  
There, standing before Father, was Rock. He was crying.  
  
"Please...please stop, Dr. Light! Don't yell at Blues...don't hurt my big brother!"  
  
_Big....brother...? He called me his brother..._ Instantly, my previous feelings of jealousy dissolved completely, never to return.  
  
"He's right, Dr. Light...he is. I've seen the way you've been treating everyone....and...I don't like it! Blues is right - you're not treating them like sons, you're treating them like second-hand objects!" He paused here to wipe his nose on his sleeve, and then burst into tears again. I sat up.  
  
"Rock...........oh........Rock, come here," I said to him. He walked over to where I was and sat down before me, sniffling. I smiled sadly at him and wiped a few stray tears from his face; Father said nothing. I think he was too stunned at Rock's sudden outburst.  
  
"Thank you, Rock..."  
  
"Blues...I..."  
  
Before he could say or do anything else, I pulled him into a tight hug.  
  
"I'm sorry..............little brother." 


	5. Sleep in Heavenly Peace

And here we have Chapter 5! Sorry it's way late!!! @_@ The boys go shopping! A terrible tragedy befalls the family, and Christmastime comes and goes with a horrible price. A side note: Zennies, the money of all Rockman games. One Zenny is equal to one U.S. dollar; also, in Japan, there's no taxes! Yay! So there's no sales tax, either.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  


**Chapter 5 - Sleep In Heavenly Peace**

After Rock stood up for me, he and I became very close. We sat down and talked about...well, just each other. I had never taken the time to actually _know_ my little brother, and I figured I owed it to him. It certainly took guts to stand up to Father like that when he was that angry.

As for Father, he had become more open and friendly towards the rest of us androids. Probably didn't want his precious little Rock to be pissed at him.  
  
Rock and I spent four glorious years together, acting as brothers do. I'd do something wrong and blame it on Rock, Rock would rebuke and re-blame it on me, then I'd re-re-blame it on him, and so on and so on. Quite fun times, those were.  
  
Aside from fighting a lot of the time, Rock and I shared a deep brotherly bond. A lot of you humans argue that we're just androids, so we _can't_ be true brothers, let alone share a bond. I will tell you this right now, zealots - you are _so_ wrong it's not even funny. Just because we're not the humans you are doesn't mean anything - we were created by the same man, after all, and I'll be damned and deactivated before I _ever_ renounce Rock, Elec, Roll, or any of the other Light Droids as my brothers and sister.  
  
"Blues! Do you know what?"  
  
"No. What, Rock?"  
  
"It's almost Christmas!!!"  
  
"Rock...it's July."  
  
"And???"  
  
"...and so Christmas isn't for another six months."  
  
"So? Now's the best time to go Christmas Shopping!! There's no lines, and no waiting, and no humans to flatten you while they try and get the most popular toys for their kids! Remember when that happened _last_ year?"  
  
"Yes, Rock, I remem-"  
  
"I was out cold for _hours!!!_ It must have taken Dr. Light an awfully long time to repair me...human feet are dangerous weapons! Were you worries about me, Blues?"  
  
"Ye-"  
  
"Did you think that I wasn't gonna make it???"  
  
"What? Don't be sil-"  
  
A gasp, and wide eyes that would put a baby deer to shame. "Did you think that I was gonna _die?????_"  
  
"_What?!_ No, Rock, how could you even thi-"  
  
"I mean, it must have been pretty scary, me not waking up and all (Trying to get words in; impossible as this kid talks about eighty miles an hour nonstop). I mean, sheesh, you must have been real worried sick, huh? Like almost crying and stuff. Or maybe you _were_ crying!! Wow, I haven't seen you cry in a while, Blues, that must have been something, huh? (Getting annoyed now, still trying to get words in; why can't he just friggin' slow _down?_) Did I have footprints and stuff all over me? I mean, those people just _pulverized_ me! It was pretty bad, I remember. Know what's cool? Dogs! They're so smart; wish _I_ had a dog. I saw one on TV today and it _saved_ this little boy! I was so happy! (_That would be Lassie, Rock._ Thought only, because actually getting the sentence in was damn impossible.) Cats are pretty neat, too, but dogs are better. I saw a frog today and it hopped on Roll and made her scream! I laughed!! So what d'you want for Christmas?"  
  
It was so totally random that it actually stunned me into silence; I even had my mouth open ready to say something, too.  
  
"What...do I want for...Christmas...?"  
  
Wow, the first coherent sentence that I was able to squeeze in all day. Too bad it didn't last very long.  
  
"Yeah, Christmas, it's almost here! I wanna do the shopping now 'cause I don't wanna get trampled again like last year, y'know?"  
  
Exasperated. God dammit. "_Yes_, Rock, I _know_. And I really don't care what you get me; in fact, I don't want anything for Christmas."  
  
"Huh? Christmas? Blues, you're _still_ thinking about Christmas? I already know what I'm getting you, I thought about it while you had your mouth all open a little while ago."  
  
"A little while...? Rock, that was only thirty seconds ago!"  
  
"Wow...that's a long time, huh? Hey, why'd ya fall?"  
  
I've just fallen anime style right on the floor. Ow. Whoop, better get up before Little Bro thinks I fractured my titanium alloy skull or ruptured my nonexistent spleen; I've seen that look in his eyes before. It's the "Get-Up-You-Fool-Before-He-Starts-Crying Look." I get up and brush myself off. No problem.  
  
"I'm okay. Don't start crying, or Father'll think I hurt you purposely or something stupid like that."  
  
"Oh...anyway, maybe I'll take Roll to the mall with me today! No, I shouldn't 'cause I wanna get her present...actually I shouldn't bring anybody with me. But I don't wanna go alone........."  
  
A new look. The Ultimate Attack. The Super-Über-Kawaii [Cute]-Watery-Puppydog-Eyes-Please-Do-This-For-Me-Because-You're-My-Big-Brother-Who-Loves-Me Look!!! The worst enemy of older brothers everywhere; it is still a mystery to this very day why older sisters aren't affected by it. Maybe it's because females know to expect this behavior and can adapt appropriately. Must be part of the Mother Complex.  
  
"_Groan..._ Aw, come on, Rock, you _know_ I hate shopping..."  
  
The SUKWPEPDTFMBYMBBWLM Look increased 100 fold. It is no use. I cannot resist its evil charms. I am defeated.  
  
"_Sigh..._ Okay, okay...come on, let's go."  
  
"_YATTA!!!_ [All right! _or_ I did it!] _Arigatou, onii-chan!!!_ [Thank you, Big Brother!!!]"  
  
I get a big hug, which makes me crack a smile. If I can get a hug out of it, I guess it's not _too_ bad. I ruffle Rock's hair.  
  
"Yeah, yeah, don't mention it. Now let's go, or else the mall's gonna close."  
  
"Okay...wait, lemme tell Dr. Light where we're goin'." A deep intake of breath. _Oh, shit..._  
  
"Um...no, wait, Rock, maybe it'd be better if y-"  
  
"DR. LIIIIIIIGHT!!!!"  
  
_OW!!!_ Ow, ow, ow, ow!!! That kid's got a voice like a fricken' _microphone!_  
  
"Whaaat? Rock, are you calling me?" The man is absolutely deaf, even with The Screamer at full power. I hold my ears, ready for the next sonic blast.  
  
"YEAH! ME AN' BLUES ARE GOIN' TO THE MALL, OKAY?"  
  
"The where?" _Jesus..._ I start to think that maybe the old coot makes my ears bleed on purpose.  
  
"**MALL!!!** THE MALL!!"  
  
"Ball? What ball?" I can now hear the definite grin in his voice; yep, I was right - he loves to torture me like this. He knows it pisses me off to no end. We have formed a strange bond, the two of us. One in which one enjoys pissing the other off. Oh, well, it's better than _no_ bond, I guess.  
  
"**_MALL!!! MALL!!! SHOPPING MALL!!!_**"  
  
Father decides that he's had enough fun. "Ohhhh....the _mall!!_ Well, why didn't you say so? Okay, have fun and be careful, you two!"  
  
Growl, mutter, gripe, complain.  
  
"OKAY!!! Hey, Blues, are you okay?"  
  
Mutter, mutter "...jackass...", snarl, mutter.  
  
"Um...okay. I guess you an' Dr. Light are playing that game again, huh? That's not a very fun _or_ nice game, y'know. But anyway, let's get going!"  
  
_Thank you, God._ "I'm in. Meetcha there, slowpoke!" I warp out just as I hear, "HEY!! I am _not_!!!"  
  
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
We get to the mall, which is surprisingly not crowded on a Saturday afternoon. Rock has money that is just burning a hole right through his pocket. The first store we hit is the toy store, Rock's most _favorite_ store in the entire known universe. I think Rock must have been programmed with something that tells him what the perfect gift for any given person is, because he heads right over to the model toy section; Guts has had his eye on some action figures from some kind of show from back in the day.  
  
"_Ne_, Blues...isn't _Di-Gi Charat_ that real old show Guts likes?"  
  
"That's the one. Do you need me to show you which ones he's been wanting?"  
  
"No...I'm good. He showed me which ones he wanted before." He scooped up a few of the figures and moved on. "Oooh! Look at this!"  
  
"TinkerToys?"  
  
"Yeah! Dontcha think Dr. Light would love 'em?"  
  
"Um...why don't you get him something more...conventional, Rock."  
  
"Conventional? What's that mean?"  
  
"You know, conventional - like a tie or a watch or something." Rock made a face.  
  
"But that's so _boring!!_" he exclaimed. "B'sides, Dr. Light _loves_ to build stuff! Now he can build it _and_ play with it!"  
  
That's Rock for you. Always thinking and acting like a child. But so innocent...I remember well those days, those days before Rock was transformed into a fighting android.  
  
.............  
  
Ah, the good old days.  
  
After Rock paid for his presents, we made our way to the game store. Xavier had been pining for Playstation15 for months now. I wanted to get it for him, so we went in. While I was busy locating the stupid system, Rock was wandering around, gazing at all the merchandise. He came running up to me all in a frenzy.  
  
"BLUES!!! Look!!! Looklooklook!!!"  
  
"Ack!! Rock! What is it?"  
  
He held up an older-than-dirt copy of a video game - it was still a _CD_, for crying out loud.  
  
"Wow, where'd you find that old thing, Rock? In the dumpster?"  
  
"Nope! I found it over there!" He pointed to a large wall of antique games and systems. This reminded of something. While Xavier loved video games, his father loved them even more. Uncle Albert had nearly every system that was ever created, even the ones from long ago, like the Dreamcast and even the Playstation1 and 2s and X-Box. Yes, he had them all...all, that is, except one. It had eluded him for years upon years, and he wanted it like no other.  
  
My game-crazed uncle wanted a lesser-known system - he wanted a WonderSwan. Those things were damn near impossible to find, even when they were first created way back when. But Uncle Albert wanted one like life. It was actually kind of sad, really. But since he wanted it so bad, I decided to, come hell or high water, find and purchase a WonderSwan for my uncle.  
  
The wall was filled with old systems and games, so I decided to check it out. And wouldn't you know if there wasn't one left. Just one, which I had to dig and search for as it was; I'm sure you all know how _that_ is - you have to dig and dig for the one you really want. After I unearthed the thing, I took both it and the PS15 to the register. The salesclerk actually gave me this weird look when I placed the WonderSwan on the counter.  
  
"Dude...huh, what the _heck_ is that thing?"  
  
"It's a WonderSwan," I muttered, not really wanting to talk.  
  
"Oh...huh, mmkay. There's, huh, no price on this thing, so huh, I'm gonna just give it to you for, huh, 50 Zennies. And the PS15's, huh, 300 Zennies, 'kay?"  
  
"Sure."  
  
"Mmkay, that'll be 350 Zennies, huh. (_Wacko..._)"  
  
"Let's go...Rock..."  
  
Rock was not standing where I had left him. _Ohhh....shit._  
  
He certainly couldn't have gone too far...could he? I decided not to take any chances, and bolted out of the store as soon as the weird guy gave me my change back. As I fled from the store, I could hear the store manager or whoever yell "HIGSBY!!!" at the weird salesclerk; must have realized that his clerk had just sold _the_ last WonderSwan ever for 50 Zennies. **[Author's Note: Not _the_ Higsby from Rockman EXE (Battle Network); most likely his grandfather or something. :P]**  
  
_Rock, where the hell are you?_ He was no where in sight. I decided to check the mall directory; maybe I could guess where he went by looking at the stores. I checked on the floor that we were currently on - there wasn't much here except department stores, the game store, and...the pet store. Of course! Rock would be there - he had said how much he wanted a dog, so he was probably there looking at them. I bolted.  
  
I proved to be right - there was my little brother, totally surrounded by all these different dogs, laughing his head off as they all licked his face. I couldn't help but smile - it _was_ a very cute little scene, as strange as that sounds coming from _me_. But we still had lots of shopping to do. I went over to the giant puppy mass.  
  
"Hey, Rock! C'mon, we've gotta get going - we still have a lot more shopping to do! _Ikimashou! Hayaku!_ [Let's go! Quickly!]" I carefully picked my way through the puppies until I finally reached Rock - he certainly was having the time of his life. Some of the dogs were jumping up and trying to lick _my_ face, which a few of them almost achieved due to my short stature. I don't really like dogs; me, I'm more of a cat person.  
  
"Bleah..._oi_, Rock! Come on!"  
  
"Awww...do I _hafta_, Blues?" I gave him a stern look.  
  
"_Ima!_ [Now!]"  
  
"Awww...well, okay." He slowly got up and gathered his things. But I noticed that he had an extra bag with him.  
  
"_Ne, otouto-chan...?_ [Hey, little brother...?]"  
  
"_Hai?_ [Yes?]"  
  
"_Ano..._what's in that other bag there?"  
  
"Aaah-ha!! Aah..._nandemonai, nandemonai!!_ [nothing, nothing!!] Don't worry about it, 'kay?"  
  
I smiled to myself. _It must be what he's getting me for Christmas._ But I decided to play dumb, just this once.  
  
"Hmmm...well, okay, I won't ask you about it. Now come on - we still need to finish shopping!"  
  
"But, Blues, I though you didn't _like_ shopping?"  
  
"I _don't_, that's why I want to finish. We'll get home quicker."  
  
"Oh...okay, then! Let's go!"  
  
-----------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
It's funny how quickly the weather can change on you. When Rock and I first arrived at the mall, the sun was shining, a blue sky. But when we were finished, we were surprised to discover it had started raining - hard. It was raining so bad that a lot of roads were closed due to the flooding; you could barely see an inch in front of your own face. Not a problem for us droids, because we could warp home and back...but it _was_ a problem for the humans, especially the ones at the mall. They couldn't get home because of the closed off roads.  
  
We were just getting ready to warp back home when all of a sudden sirens started blaring. We both looked up at the same time a police unit was racing toward a particularly bad section of the road - it was terribly flooded there. Even worse, the section that was flooded the most was a bridge that overlooked a river, the deepest one in the city. The scene was just close enough for us to see what was going on, but too far to actually see the persons involved in whatever had happened.  
  
From what I could see, a large portion of the bridge's railing was completely gone. There were big, black streaks on the bridge; it looked as if someone had skid.  
  
"Wow...it looks like there was a really bad accident, Blues!" breathed Rock. He was right. I finally concluded what had happened: someone was driving on the bridge, skid due to the rain and leaves that had come from the large _sakura_ [cherry blossom] tree, and...well, went over the edge, taking a part of the railing with them. They never would have survived a sixty-foot fall, especially at that force, and trapped in their car to boot.  
  
"That's...really a shame," I said, lowering my gaze.  
  
"Do...do you think that they're..." Rock trailed off, unable to finish. He loves humans so much; it hurts him to see one hurt...let alone dead. I put my hand on his shoulder.  
  
"Yes, Rock. I...I doubt they made it, whoever they were." Rock sniffled, and buried his face into my chest.  
  
"Hey...c'mon now, Rock...why don't we go home, and you can start your wrapping? And maybe Mother can make us some hot chocolate or something." (No, we don't need to eat or drink being androids of course, but hot chocolate made by Mother was always a great treat, even in the summer. She always made the best hot chocolate.)  
  
"OK, Blues," Rock finally said. "Let's go home." He warped out. I took one last look at the terrible scene, shook my head, and warped out as well.  
  
  
  
There was no car in the driveway when I arrived. The door was open, letting in rain. Rock was standing in the doorway, the bags he had dropped at his feet. Father was there, hugging him close. And all of a sudden, I had the worst feeling in the world.  
  
I ran from the end of the driveway, where I had warped in, all the way to the front steps, literally sliding to a stop in the rain. Had I a need to breathe, I probably would have been out of breath as well.  
  
"Father!" I gasped. "What..." But I stopped short, for I happened to look inside of the house as I stopped at the steps. Uncle Albert was there, on his knees, his face buried in his hands. He was making the most awful wailing I have ever heard in my entire activation. It was haunted, sorrowful...I hoped to never hear something as morose as it again. And the only thing he kept repeating over and over again was...  
  
"They're dead...dead....they're _dead!!!_"  
  
_Dead...? Dead... de-oh, my God...._  
  
I pushed past Rock and Father, who I noticed was weeping, and ran to Uncle Albert. I knelt down before him and took him by the shoulders.  
  
"U-uncle Albert! Uncle Albert!!" I shook him gently, but he wouldn't respond; he just kept repeating the same thing over and over again. And then...  
  
"Blues." I looked up; it was Xavier. Astonished, I stared at him - he _never_ called me Blues...only Zero. Uncle Albert had looked up, too. His gaze...frightened me. He glared at Xavier.  
  
"You...get out of my sight." Xavier was taken aback.  
  
"Wh-what...?"  
  
"I SAID GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!" thundered Uncle Albert, causing me to fall backward onto my rear, and Xavier to jump back, eyes wide and frightened.  
  
"B-but...Papa..."  
  
Uncle Albert's eyes blazed. "'Papa'? I will _kill_ you!! GET OUT!" Xavier backed away, fresh tears spilling down his cheeks. He took off upstairs.  
  
"X...! Uncle Albert....how could you _say_ such a thing?!" His terrible gaze fell upon me...and he grinned.  
  
"Y-you're...you insane!!" I gasped. And with this, he let out a laugh as I have never heard.  
  
"Maybe...maybe I am! Ha, ha ha!!! Ha ha ha!!! AAAAAAAAAH HA HA HA HA!!!!" I shrunk back, terrified. Never had my Uncle Albert, who was usually so caring, kind, and compassionate, act in such a way. As he laughed like the madman he had just become, Father and Rock turned and gaped at him.  
  
"Albert...?" said Father cautiously, wiping his eyes with his handkerchief.  
  
"Albert? Oh, no, Light. Albert has left the building - permanently! Say hello............to Dr. Wily!!!" More insane laughter. "You'd better watch yourself, Light!! Watch yourself....and those ridiculous robots of yours!" He got to his feet, gave me one last terrifying gaze, and then fled out the door, laughing into the evening rain. We all just stared after him; it was the only thing we could do.  
  
"Father..." I said as I approached him and Rock. Father turned, still astonished.  
  
"Yes...what is it...Blues?"  
  
"What...exactly happened? What caused Uncle Albert to go insane?"  
  
Father choked up then. It was obviously hurting him. He squeezed his eyes shut, and I noticed fresh tears fall from his eyes.  
  
"Blues...your mother and Aunt Sarah are...well, they were in a....car accident. On the bridge, near the mall where you were. They were going shopping, too. They're...they're _dead_, Blues...dead...!!" And with that, he collapsed into a terrible weeping spell, muttering my mother's name over and over again. Now I understood. Not only had Uncle Albert lost his wife...but he had lost his little sister as well. I looked over at Rock, and thought about what it might be like to lose him. I immediately snuffed the thought from my mind. And Xavier...what had caused his father to blatantly disown his own son like that?  
  
Then I remembered something......something I had noticed about Xavier the very first day I was activated for the first time....  
  
_This was the son of Albert and Sarah. He resembled his mother very much._  
  
So that was why. It pained Uncle Albert immensely to look upon X...because he was reminded of his now-dead wife.  
  
_Uncle Albert..._  
_Aunt Sarah..._  
_Mother..._  
  
  
_Dead...they're all dead..._


	6. Silent Night

Chapter Six is here! I am so sorry it's so late!! Gomen gomen gomen!!! ^^;;;;; Since it's so close to the holidays, I thought it would be appropriate. This time Christmas actually does come! ^^;; However, it's not so merry as one would hope...  


**Chapter 6 - Silent Night**

Months had passed since Mother and Aunt Sarah's deaths; it was now December. Life was certainly different anymore. All feelings of animosity towards any of us that Father had ever had dissipated immediately following Mother and Aunt Sarah's deaths; Xavier still tried to uphold his easy-going nature, but it didn't always work. For the first few weeks, I always caught him crying; it didn't matter where he was, he would just cry, which was understandable. His very father had disowned him. I tried as best I could to cheer him up, but that's not really my strong suit. So I usually had Rock tag along, and the two of us would see if we couldn't cheer up X. Rock's a naturally caring and happy droid; when you're around him, you can't help but lose your negative emotions. We were almost always successful with X; Rock and I always made him laugh whenever we had bouts of sibling rivalry.

It was very different without Uncle Albert...I missed him terribly. Out of all the humans living with me, Uncle Albert and X were the two I cared for the most. But I knew that there couldn't be more than one depressed child in the house, so I had to mask my emotions. It took a few days, and it was very hard trying to block out my emotions protocol, but I finally succeeded. I myself was almost as depressed as X, but I never showed it, never expressed it. And nobody was the wiser. I had gotten very good at hiding.  
  
But as always, Elec Man could see right through me.  
  
"Blues."  
  
"Hmm? Oh, hi, Elec. What's up?"  
  
"...come with me. I need to talk to you."  
  
"Um...okay..." We went upstairs to my room; Elec sat himself on my bed, and motioned for me to do the same. I obeyed, and plopped myself next to my little brother.  
  
"So what was it that you wanted to talk about, Elec?" I asked. He smiled, an unreadable expression on his face.  
  
"You may be able to hide from the others, but you can't hide from me, Blues." I was more than slightly taken aback.  
  
"Wh-what do you mean, Elec?" He stopped smiling.  
  
"I can see right through that disguise, Blues."  
  
"What disguise? What are you talking abou-"  
  
"You know," he interrupted harshly, angry and hurt, "I really wish you wouldn't just bottle everything up inside of you, Blues! It's not good...pent up feelings can lead to dangerous things. I've seen it in humans; trapped emotions lead to nothing but trouble. You need to talk about how you feel - we all just can't keep guessing!"  
  
I narrowed my eyes. "I am _not_ a human!"  
  
Elec sighed. "Yes, I know that. But still, it's not a good idea."  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"Because it can destroy you. If you keep your emotions hidden, one day you're going to overload, and all of your emotions will come spilling out. Then you'll do something drastic, something you'll regret."  
  
"I'm in control of my emotions," I said curtly. "I can keep them locked away. They're just burdens anyway, to me and to everyone else."  
  
"Is that what you think? That you can't tell us how you feel because you think it'll be a burden on us?"  
  
"I have to be strong...for X and for the rest of you. I can't let my emotions get the better of me. We can't have two depressed people moping around. Somebody has to keep his head on straight."  
  
"Blues...look, we're all in this together. This tragedy affected us all. Everybody's depressed and angry and hurt to _some_ degree! If you don't start showing how you feel, then Dr. Light's going to take you apart and see if you've damaged something! He thinks you're malfunctioning because it seems like you don't care, and he knows you better than that. He knows how close you and Dr. Wily are. When he sees you not acting depressed, then -"  
  
"Well, that's pretty fricking sick, isn't it? 'Since Blues isn't depressed, he must be malfunctioning.' God, I can't stand that man sometimes!"  
  
"Blues, please try to understand. Dr. Light cares about you, about all of us. He doesn't want to see any of us hurt. And he wants to know how you feel. But you won't let anybody inside your heart; you won't let us see what's wrong and how you're feeling. And I just wish that you would for a change." He slid off the bed, opened the door, and stood in its frame. Then he looked back at me with a melancholy expression and headed out the door, leaving me sitting alone on my bed, left to contemplate what he had said.  
  
Maybe he was right. After all, this was the time to come together and share our emotions with one another; now was the time to talk over things with the family. But...I didn't want to bother any of them with my feelings. They had enough things to worry about without my emotions adding on to the pile; I didn't want to trouble anyone. But Elec had said...that I wouldn't be troubling anyone at all, because they all felt the same way as I did. And I really trusted Elec's word. He was a very wise android, even though he was younger than I was. I jumped down from my bed and stared into the mirror.  
  
I saw a young android of eleven human years, with longish sandy blonde hair and emerald green eyes. I had once heard an old saying: "The eyes are the mirrors of the soul." I peered intently into this android's eyes, to see if I could see anything.  
  
I did.  
  
I saw a magnitude of emotions - anger, sadness, depression, hurt, fear...I saw them all reflected in these green mirrors, these mirrors that kept everything locked up, sealed tightly in his mind, never letting anyone get close enough to the lock as to open it. And Elec was right - it looked as if he was being torn apart before my very eyes, as if something was killing him slowly, very slowly, too slow enough for me to detect. But now I could see it.  
  
I stared at this distraught boy and he stared back, unblinking, letting his emotions wash over me like the tide. I thought about what Elec had said - if I just let my family know what I was feeling, then I wouldn't be so torn apart. I decided then that I would follow his sage advice. I took one last glance at the sad little boy, exited my room, and walked downstairs.  
  
I could smell food cooking - Roll was making dinner. In the family room were all of my brothers, sitting around the fire place, the Christmas tree lights reflecting on their armors. Father wasn't there; I assumed he was down working in the lab again. He had to do all of the inventing himself now, although X was starting to learn a lot about mechanics. Sometimes he was even able to help Father on some of the smaller projects; since I didn't see him in the family room, I assumed that was were he was now.  
  
Either that or crying again.  
  
I walked into the room and surveyed the scene: Ice and Fire were playing cards, Bomb and Guts were listening to Cut play the old piano we had, and Elec was singing a Christmas carol. Curled up in front of the fireplace was Rock, sleeping soundly. I smiled; it was so peaceful. A feeling of immense happiness washed over me, and I found myself feeling very humble all of a sudden.  
  
Everyone had a piping hot mug of cocoa with those little marshmallows on top; it seemed Roll had made hot chocolate. I was instantly reminded of Mother's hot chocolate; she made the best hot cocoa this side of Tokyo. Thinking about Mother made me think of Aunt Sarah...and thinking about Aunt Sarah made me think about Uncle Albert. I remembered all of the things we used to do, how Uncle Albert was the one to make me feel accepted, how he helped me speak...how he was always there for me. All of these memories were...painful to dwell on. I found tears streaking down my cheeks in spite of myself. I squeezed my eyes shut tight, trying to stop the flow of tears, but it didn't help; in fact, it only made things worse. I was losing the battle against my own emotions, the battle that I had fought so long and hard to win. Now that I had finally won it, I felt myself losing again. In my battle of trying to stop the tears, I felt my voice module give way, letting lose a loud sob.  
  
Well, that did it. Cut stopped playing, Elec stopped singing, and everyone turned and looked at me. Everyone, that is, except Rock, who was still sleeping peacefully, and Roll, who was in the kitchen and couldn't hear what was going on.  
  
The sob had startled me, and my eyes flew open. Feeling stare after stare on me, I slowly lifted my gaze and saw my brothers gazing back. Then came an emotion that I had never really experienced before, and I didn't know what to make of it. It made me feel uneasy and uncomfortable, and I could feel my cheeks turning slightly red. Annoyed, I accessed my mental book of emotions, and it identified the new feeling as "embarrassment."  
  
Wonderful. Now I had yet another God damned emotion to try and control. On top of that, my mother and aunt were dead, my cousin was always depressed, and my uncle, the person who was very much like my second father, had totally gone insane and we hadn't heard from him since that rainy July night. To make matters worse, everyone was staring at me, and I didn't like it, didn't like it one bit, and, and....  
  
...and I just couldn't take it anymore. I stared at Elec, felt my lower lip quiver, and then burst into heaving sobs. I fell to my knees and put my face in my hands, and just cried. Just cried and cried and cried. I had to let it all out; it felt good to cry. Elec was right. Letting out my emotions _did_ make me feel better...but it sure as hell scared the living bolts out of my other five brothers. They all ran over to me, crowded each other, each one trying to reach me first. I knew they were there, but I didn't care; I ignored them all. At least I tried to, but then Guts came barging through the little crowd of androids, wailing my name. He plucked me from the ground, picked me up, and squeezed me so tight I thought my optics would come popping right out of my head. Needless to say, this definitely quieted my sobs...strangled them, you might say.  
  
"Ohhh...Blues, Blues, what's wroooong????" he wailed. "Why are you crying, Blues?! Please don't cry anymore!!! Uhhoohoohoohooooo!!" And with that, Gutsman proceeded to cry large tears that splashed into my hair.  
  
"HEY!! Heyheyheyhey!! Guts, Guts, you're squeezing!! Heyheyhey!! If he could breathe, he'd be turning blue, just like my coat, and then he'd be living up to his name! Heyheyhey!!! Stop now, Guts! Put Blues down!" Ice inhaled, then let loose a frigid blast of arctic air which made my hair turn stiff and froze the tears to my face. It also made Gutsman release me; he was too cold. As I fell to the ground with a _whump!_, Guts wrapped his arms around himself and shivered.  
  
"Hey!" he sniffed. "That wasn't nice, Iceman!"  
  
"No, but it was effective," pointed out Fire. Guts sulked.  
  
"Good job, you morons," said Bomb. "You made Blues fall to the floor. Are you okay, Blues?"  
  
I wiped my eyes. "...physically, yes, I'm fine." I stood up and brushed myself off, then sat down on the couch, hands in my lap, still sniffling. I just couldn't stop the tears from coming, no matter how hard I tried.  
  
"Care to...talk about it, Blues?" I looked up and into the face of Elec, who had the same sad smile as before. I felt as though I was ready to cry again.  
  
"Elec........yes. Yes, I...want to talk...about it," I said slowly. And with that, I dissolved into sobs again. This worried the others, except for Elec, it seemed. In fact, he acted as though he had predicted this. Elec sat down next to me on my left; Ice clambered up on the couch and sat to my right. Guts went around behind the couch and watched from there, while Fire, Bomb, and Cut all sat in front of me.  
  
"I...I feel so....st-stupid," I choked. "I...I know I'm n-not usually like th-this...but...I just...I just can't _hold this in any longer!!_" Ice patted my hand.  
  
"Heyheyhey," he said gently. "It's okay, Blues, really. We're your brothers, 'member? We're worried about you. What's the matter?"  
  
I remembered that sad little boy staring at me with woeful eyes; I didn't want to be him any more. So, in between spurts of sobs and sputterings, I managed to finally tell my brothers how I felt. How I was miserable without Uncle Albert; how I missed him so much; how I was depressed all the time; how I hid my feelings from everyone so that they wouldn't worry about me; how it seemed to have backfired; how I felt that I needed to hide my feelings so they wouldn't be a burden to anyone. I told them everything that I felt, everything. Then I started to cry again.  
  
That was when I heard a different voice. It was smaller, and higher pitched.  
  
And it was crying, too.  
  
"R-rock...?"  
  
Yes, it was he. Rock had woken up due to all the commotion, but had hung back. Now he was standing behind Fire, Bomb, and Cut, crying his little sapphire eyes out.  
  
"Why...why didn't you tell us, _Onii-chan_? Why didn't you tell us? Why did you keep it locked away?! Why didn't you tell us that you were suffering so much?!" He sat on the floor and cried harder than ever, which made _me_ feel like absolute shit. Here I was, keeping my feelings hidden away, never even noticing that it was hurting the ones I loved. My secrecy had wounded them. And just as bad was the fact that I made my little brother, the one who was so kind and caring, the one who possessed a delicate and sensitive soul...I had made him _cry_. It was the worst feeling in the world. If I could have, I would have felt sick to my stomach. I jumped off the couch, pushed past my three other brothers, and ran to the sobbing Rock. I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him tightly, held him close.  
  
"Rock...I'm so sorry...I didn't realize that it would affect you, too...I...guess I was being selfish, in a way. Ironic, though...isn't it?"  
  
Rock sniffed. "Y'mean...you can iron stuff with your selfishness?"  
  
You know...sometimes I think Rock acts clueless on purpose...just to make me laugh.  
  
"Wh-what...?" I chuckled. "No...no, Rock. 'Ironic' means...well, it's hard to define. But here's an example: I was trying not to hurt all of you with my emotions and problems, and yet by keeping them hidden, I did the very thing I was trying to prevent. Do you understand now?"  
  
"I...think so," he sniffled. He wiped his nose with the back of his hand; how gross was that? I grimaced.  
  
"Um...here, Rock," I said, handing him a hankie. "Don't use your hand...that's really nasty."  
  
"Oh...sorry, Blues." He blew his nose quite loudly.  
  
"But I don't understand somethin'....why did you hide from us, Blues? You said that you didn't wanna hurt or burden us with your feelings...but we're your brothers."  
  
"Yeah? And?"  
  
"...and we _love_ you, _Onii-chan_. We would never be hurt or burdened by any emotions, 'specially yours."  
  
"Oh?" I smiled. "And why is that?"  
  
"'Cause," he chirped, "we all look up t'you!" Then he smiled his insanely cute smile, while the other androids all agreed.  
  
"That's right," said Fire. "You're an inspiration to us all."  
  
"Suresuresure! We all look up to you!"  
  
"We have deep respect for you, Blues," said Bomb.  
  
"'Course we do! You're our older brother!" chimed in Cut.  
  
"Without you, we'd be totally lost!" said Guts.  
  
"Do you see now, Blues?" said Elec. I looked up at him. "Do you see now? Can you see how much we love you, Blues? We don't want to see you hurt, either. When you're upset, _we're_ upset. And we can't bear to see you in pain, especially Rock." He leaned down to my ear. "I think," he whispered, "that Rock looks up to you most of all." He grinned.  
  
I was speechless. Never had I heard such words directed at me before. Never. Not once had I been told these...wonderful things. It made me feel so...loved, at the risk of sounding cliché. I smiled through my tears.  
  
"_Minna...arigatou!_" ["Everyone...thank you!"]  
  
The clock chimed. Six o'clock. Roll came in.  
  
"Okay, everyone, it's dinner!! Oh...!" She looked around and saw us all huddled together. "Did I miss something?" Rock shook his head.  
  
"Nope! It's okay, Roll, you didn't miss anything!"  
  
"Oh...okay! Well, c'mon, and let's eat! I'll go and get Dr. Light and Xavier!" She walked off, and the rest of us headed into the kitchen for a pre-Christmas Eve dinner.   


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Blues..."  
  
"Huh...? Who is it...?"  
  
"Blues..."  
  
"Who's there? Uncle Albert? Is that you...?"  
  
A shadowy face. Recognizable hair style.  
  
"U-uncle Albert...! It _is_ you!!!"  
  
Running toward the figure. Running...running....  
  
...a metamorphosis...not the same...now it was...  
  
"No, you foolish little robot! I am Dr. Wily!!"  
  
An insane laugh...a cold, heartless laugh.  
  
Choking...he's choking me. I'm dying, shutting down...all systems fail--  
  
_**BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!!!**_  
  
"Hunhfrshzl?!" I sat bolt upright in my bed, sweating. A dream...just a dream...but he had tried to kill me. What did it mean?  
  
_**BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!!!**_  
  
I groaned. Stupid alarm clock. I reached over and shut it off, then looked over at my calendar.  
  
December 24th, 20XX.  
  
I sighed and laid back in my bed, pulling the covers up to my chin. Then Roll knocked at the door, told me to get up, shouted something at Rock, and then went back downstairs in a huff.  
  
It turned out the reason she was so mad was _because_ of Rock. Rock was bouncing all over the place. He absolutely loved Christmas; it was his favorite time of the year. He loved giving gifts to people, and just couldn't wait for tomorrow. He was also getting on everyone's nerves. So, in order to alleviate their grief, I volunteered to spend the day with him after breakfast. As if that was any different from any other day.  
  
It just happened to be snowing out. Rock made some sort of comment about "having a white Christmas." I had to admit, watching the snow fall _was_ pretty peaceful, even sort of soothing. Of course, the _real_ problem occurred when Rock actually wanted to go _outside_ in the stuff.  
  
"C'mon, _onii-chan_!! Let's go outside and play in the snow!!"  
  
"Er...I don't know, Rock. Snow's awfully cold..."  
  
"Well, _yeah_! That's half the fun!" And he ran outside, letting in frigid winter air.  
  
"SHUT THE FRICKEN' DOOR!" shouted six angry voices; my brothers and sister were sitting in the family room watching TV and the cold air had swept over the as well, although Ice didn't mind it at all. In fact, he loved the way the air brushed over him. I sighed, and went out the door, shutting it quickly behind me.  
  
Yes, it was indeed freezing. I wrapped my arms around myself and shivered. Why the hell did winter have to be so damn cold? But as I looked around the quiet December afternoon, I slowly but surely didn't mind the cold as much. It was so silent, so peaceful...so beautiful. I smiled and enjoyed what was before my optics.  
  
_WHAM!_ A snowball came in contact with the side of my head. _GOD_, but that was freezing!!! I whirled about and looked every which way, even though I already figured who my assailant was. I scanned over the landscape, pretending to not notice the snickering that came from my left.  
  
The good thing about snow is that it muffles your footsteps. I had no trouble sneaking up behind Rock, who was hiding behind a snowbank, his back turned to me, giggling away madly. I grinned to myself, desperately trying to keep my own giggles inside. Then I attacked.  
  
"RRRRAAAAAH!!" I grabbed ahold of Rock's shoulders and he let out a loud scream of bloody murder. He spun around, his little sapphire optics wide with fear. When he saw it was me, he pouted.  
  
"That wasn't funny, Blues!!" he said, but I was too bust laughing hysterically to hear. I fell on my back, holding my sides, laughing so hard tears were streaming down my cheeks.  
  
"Y-your f-face!! Ha ha ha!! You should have seen your _face_!!!! It was classic!! Hoo hoo!!!" I finally calmed down and sat up, ignoring the bitter chill of the cold. This was too much fun. I stood up and brushed the snow from my coat and pants, then scooped up some snow and made it into a snowball. Just as I looked up, Rock had a snowball in his hand, too. We stood there, eyeing each other up.  
  
"This means war!" shouted Rock, and launched his snowball, but this time I was ready. I dodged it and as I did, I threw my own snowball, which hit its mark square in the chest.  
  
"_Yatta_!!! That's what you get, Rock!" I cried triumphantly. For the next hour, we let loose barrage after barrage of snowballs, laughing the entire time. Our snowball fight came to an end, however, when we heard Roll from the door:  
  
"Hey, you two, you want some hot cocoa?"  
  
Immediately we both stopped, snowballs in out hands. We looked at each other and grinned.  
  
"Heck _yes_!!" said Rock, and he dropped his snowball and went inside. I chuckled and dropped my own snowball and followed Rock into the house. It was considerably warmer in there, and it felt as though my very circuitry was defrosting. Just as I was walking into the family room, Iceman was walking out.  
  
"Yayyayayay!! I just love the snow!! I'm gonna make a snowman! 'Scuse me, Blues!" He bolted outside, washing everyone else with a jet of cold air again. Fire glowered; he despised the cold weather.  
  
I walked into the kitchen, where Rock and Roll were. Rock was already sitting at the table, his short legs dangling from the seat, mug in hand. He was hovering over a piece of paper. I took my mug from Roll, thanked her, and pulled up a chair next to my little brother.  
  
"Whatcha doing, Rock?"  
  
"Colorin'."  
  
"Ah...what are you coloring?"  
  
He slid the book over a bit so I could see. It was a drawing that he had done, of the entire family. He had drawn us all sitting together on the large couch in the family room.  
  
"Hey, that's good, Rock," I said. And _no_, I wasn't just humoring him; it actually _was_ a pretty good drawing.  
  
"Thanks! I'm gonna give this to Dr. Light tomorrow as part of his Christmas present!"  
  
"Oh. I bet he'll like it a lot. Maybe he'll hang it up in the lab." Rock's eyes went wide, and he turned to face me.  
  
"_Really_???" he gasped. "You think he will?"  
  
"Sure," I shrugged. Rock grinned, then went back to coloring. I took a sip of cocoa and leaned back in my chair. Then I made sure Roll wasn't looking; she wasn't. She was busy washing the dishes. I smirked and rested my feet up on the table.  
  
"You'd better get your feet off the table right now, Blues," said Roll. I blinked astonished. How had she known I had put my feet up on the table when her back was still turned? I decided not to think about it and obeyed, putting my feet back on the floor.  
  
"Thaank _you_!" she chirped. I went back to my hot cocoa.  
  
After I was finished with it, I pushed my chair away from the table and started to go out the kitchen door, when Roll's voice stopped my short in my tracks.  
  
"Oh, Blues, can you finish the rest of these dishes? I need to get dinner started."  
  
_Curses, foiled again,_ I thought. "Aw, Roll, can't I just-"  
  
"_Now_, Blues." I knew that tone. That was the "Shut-up-you-fool-and-just-do-what-she-says" tone. I sighed and did what she asked. Then I heard Rock snickering, and I shot him a glare. He shut up after that, but still had this annoyingly spiteful grin plastered on his face the whole time he was coloring.  
  
Once the dishes were done, I was finally free to go and watch a little television with my other brothers before dinner...or so I thought. All I wanted to do was just veg out but _no_. Because the moment I walked into the family room, Roll called out, "Dinner!!" and I was nearly killed as six androids came from every which way and into the kitchen, followed closely by Father and X.  
  
Nothing in this house survives very long when there's food on the table.  
  
We almost never talk to each other at the table, mostly because we're all too busy stuffing our faces; Roll's meals are very, very tasty. Sure, we don't need to eat, but that never stopped us before.  
  
After dinner was finished and the kitchen cleaned up, the whole family filed into the family room, where Cut went over to the piano and started to play a Christmas carol. Elec started it, then we all joined in. This was how we spent our Christmas Eve, singing together, as the snow fell silently to the ground. I remember it so well...  
  
It was the last Christmas Eve we ever spent together.  
  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Blues!! Blues, wake up!! It's _Christmas_, Blues!!"  
  
"Mrmmhf..."  
  
"Come _on_, Onii-chaaaaan!!"  
  
"Okay, okay! I'm up, Rock...sheesh..."  
  
The little brat was hovering over my bed, eyes wide and excited; the kid could barely contain himself. He was jumping all over the place as if he really, really had to use the bathroom. Which is impossible, since he _is_ an android after all. Although, if properly equipped with the right things, _nothing_ is impossible for an android.  
  
But anyway.  
  
Groggily, I practically rolled out of bed. Rock grabbed my arm and literally dragged me down the stairs. Once we reached the family, however, I was wide awake.  
  
Everyone was seated around the Christmas tree, the lights blazing merrily. They hadn't yet unwrapped anything; they were waiting for me.  
  
Rock and I sat down with everyone else, and the great gift exchange began. To tell the truth.........mostly all of the presents I received and gave that day are all a blur......forgotten.  
  
Except for one.  
  
"Here, Blues! Merry Christmas!"  
  
I smirked. The package from the mall that day, so long ago. But I played stupid yet again.  
  
"Gee, Rock, thanks!" Grinning wickedly, I started to slowly pick at the wrapping paper, meticulously tearing the edges. That pisses Rock off to no end; I knew it, and he knew that I knew. He began to fidget.  
  
"Blues...." he whined. I rolled my eyes, and tore the rest of the paper off. He knew that his whining annoyed the hell out of me. Every time he whined at me, I usually did what he wanted.  
  
It was a white box. I opened the box...and in it was the thing that I am associated with the most, aside from my telltale whistle.  
  
Inside the box was the present that I have treasured the most. Inside the box...  
  
...was a yellow scarf.  
  
"Wow..." I breathed. "Thanks, Rock! I love it."  
  
Rock grinned. "I knew you would!" he said gleefully. "Here, try it on!!"  
  
He took it from me and wrapped it around my neck. I stood and went to look in the hall mirror.  
  
"Looks good," I said. "But I'm going to try a different style, I think." Currently, it was just draped across my shoulders. But I reworked it, and finally got it into the style that it is to this very day - loose, a lofty part draped over my chest. Tied in a knot, the rest of the scarf trailing behind, like a tail.  
  
It truly was the best present I had ever received.  
  
The rest of the day is...a blur as well. I can't really recall what happened the rest of that afternoon...it must have been pretty uneventful. Or maybe it's my memory banks acting up again.  
  
But whatever the reason, I can only recall what happened early that evening, around...oh, maybe five o'clock or so. I remember...  
  
...sitting with Rock and my other brothers. Roll was in the kitchen making dinner, and Father and Xavier were downstairs in the lab, tinkering with some sort of new invention. We were just.........sitting there, just siting there...  
  
...when all of a sudden, the front door was broken down. Startled, everyone looked up...and I will never forget what I saw.  
  
".....U-un...Uncle Albert?!"  
  
It was he. Only I was wrong - it wasn't Uncle Albert. Well, I mean it _was_...but he didn't go by that anymore. Now he went by -  
  
"Dr. Wily, you foolish robot!" Rock sprang to his feet.  
  
"What do you want, Dr. Wily?!" he exclaimed. Dr. Wily grinned; it was not a nice grin, either.  
  
"Why...I want my Christmas presents." We all looked at him like he was insane. Which he was.  
  
"What...are you talking about?" I said slowly. "What Christmas presents?"  
  
"Why...my Christmas presents....are the eight of _you_!!!" With that, he whipped out some sort of device - it looked like a stun gun or something. Which, we found out, was _exactly_ what it was. Wily leveled it at Guts and fired - Guts cried out, then fell limp to the floor with a loud _thud!_ The rest of us stared, wide-eyed. Then we did the only thing left to do - ran.  
  
We bolted in different directions. I grabbed Rock, ran into the kitchen, grabbed a protesting Roll, and flew like a bat out of hell up the stairs. Behind me, I heard the cries of my brothers as they fell, one by one. By this time Rock was, as usual in these situations, crying; Roll had no idea as to what was going on - she hadn't heard all the commotion, which to me seemed odd. I mean, you'd have to be deaf not to hear _Guts_ go crashing to the floor.  
  
I herded the two into my room and slammed the door behind me, panting with fear, feeling the adrenaline that was oil pumping through my system. Quickly I locked the door and looked for a place to stash Rock and Roll. I could hear Wily coming up the stairs, calling in a sickly sing-song voice, "Oh, Bluuu-uuess....where arrreee youuuu...???" It made my metallic skin crawl.  
  
Finally I decided that the most appropriate hiding place was the small cubby hole I had in my ceiling. It was actually for storage, but I never put anything up there. Probably because I really didn't own a lot of things, so I never needed the extra space. Now I was glad that I didn't.  
  
I pulled down the trap door, which to the untrained eye was practically invisible when it was shut. You'd have to have extremely keen vision or some sort of device in order to see, if you didn't know what you were looking for and where to look for it. I helped Roll into the space, and turned to shove Rock up as well, but he wouldn't let me near him.  
  
"NO!" he protested, stamping his foot. "I wanna help you!"  
  
"Rock, _please_!!" I pleaded. "You'll be helping me by hiding and staying safe!"  
  
"But what about you? That space isn't big enough for all three of us! Where are _you_ gonna hide?"  
  
"Up on the roof," I lied. There was no way I'd let Wily get his hands on my brother and sister. He had already gotten my other six brothers, and so help me he wasn't going to get these last two, not if I could help it.  
  
Thankfully, Rock bought my fib, and climbed up into the cubby hole, albeit reluctantly. Once he was safely inside, I slammed the trap door closed. Just as I did, I heard the door being kicked down. I whirled - there was Wily, the stun gun in his hand, a maniacal grin plastered on his face. I gulped and started to back away, stupidly. Wily followed me, and I knew that he would eventually corner me.  
  
"What's the matter, robot? Afraid of your old pal, Uncle Albert?" he sneered as he advanced on me.  
  
He said that "r" word with such hate, such venom, that it physically made me wince each time he said it. And before I knew it, my back was pressed against the wall Then Wily was pressing the end of the stun gun's barrel against my chin, pushing it upward as he glared at me triumphantly.  
  
_This is it,_ I thought, terrified, squeezing my eyes shut. _He's going to get me, too...I've...failed..._  
  
I waited for the blast, but none came. Confused, I wrenched open one eye, and laid eyes on perhaps one scene that would have been extremely humorous under different circumstances.  
  
Rock had gotten out of the cubby hole and was now on top of Wily, pounding him with his little fists. I reckoned that about a million and one protocols were probably screeching at him right about now, telling him he was in violation of half the Rules of Robotics. But either way, Rock wasn't giving in. In the end, however, Wily got the better of Rock, and threw him against the wall.  
  
That pretty much did it for me.  
  
I narrowed my eyes in anger, and then watched horrified as Wily pointed the gun at my little brother. Thinking fast, I whistled, a loud, sharp sound.  
  
And my signature, as well. The short burst of notes that one always hears whenever I come to their rescue.  
  
Wily turned just in time to see my fist come flying at him. The old man didn't have enough time to duck, and my metal fist came in contact with his soft, fleshy face.  
  
Take a guess as to what happened.  
  
Let's just say that...I'm surprised Wily didn't need a blood transfusion. It was absolutely everywhere. Think about it - a decent-sized hunk of solid metal going at a decent speed right at a pretty soft substance.  
  
I must say, it was pretty nasty. And boy, oh, boy, did I ever want to kill myself. Not only had I just totally wrecked my uncle's face, causing vast amounts of blood to come spilling onto the white carpet, but I had done the unthinkable. I had harmed a human. I had broken the number one rule of robotics.  
  
And boy, did my system so totally _not_ care for that in the least.  
  
Next thing I know, I'm totally paralyzed. I cannot move, not one muscle. All the while being told by my system that I was in violation, and that I was dangerous. As such, I needed to be halted. So that's exactly what the damned program did - it halted me, all right. So much so that it left me unable to move. How inconvenient.  
  
Somehow I hadn't managed to knock Wily out - I just pissed him off even more. He suddenly forgot all about Rock. Now he had a new target - me. And it was even worse for me, because I couldn't move. I couldn't fight back. I had no defenses left.....................  
  
The last thing I remember was Wily pointing the gun at me and pulling the trigger. I heard a loud noise, saw Rock reach out his arm toward me and call out my name, felt unmatchable pain.  
  
And then everything went black. 


	7. Authoress Notes

Authoress' Notes  
  
Wow...it sure has been a while since I last updated this, eh? To all my loyal readers, thanks for sticking with me. ^^;; These past months have been rather crazy for me, what with this past school year being my senior year and all; there have also been numerous family-related and personal matters that I had to attend to. I am now graduated from high school, and have been accepted to Rutgers College. I also have a job working part-time at Hollywood Video. With this in mind, now that summer is here, I'll be working a lot; I figured I wouldn't have a lot of time to actually sit down and write anymore. But it took two more positive reviews from two very cool readers to snap me out of that. I realised that you guys deserve to not be left hanging (what ever did happen to Blues and the others, eh?). And I remembered, reading back, that Ebony Heaven is far from over. So here it is, dear readers - consider this story once again up and running. I truly am sorry to have left you all (as well as Blues!) hanging like this, but no more. It's time once more to rack the old brain and try to salvage what's left of my ideas for EB(let's hope I can remember them all; it's been a long time ^^;;). It's also time to re-read the previous chapters and see where I left off. However, I'm not going to commit myself to deadlines and schedules; I've tried that with other projects of mine and found that I just work quicker (plus the quality is better) than when I just do random updates. So keep on checking back! My next day off from work is Sunday, but I might be going out with friends. If that's the case, I will write Monday; if not, then I will write Sunday. What does this mean? It means that you can most defiantely expect a new chapter either Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday. To keep track of me, read my DeadJournal (http://www.deadjournal.com/~kitnee), where I'll be posting story updates every so often. Questions or comments can be e-mailed to me at sailorgalaxy@snip.net.  
  
Until then, everyone!! 


	8. Maximus Proximitas

All right, here it is - the long-awaited (I think!! ^^;;) Chapter 7!! It came a bit earlier than I had said, eh? ^_^ I really owe it to you guys, though. ^^;; But I remembered how fun it is to write this story - I can't wait to start writing the next chapter! I _should_ be able to write it Monday, but with _my_ job, you never know when they'll call you in. _ But we'll see! In the meantime, you can all finally find out what happened to Blues and his family! I also upgraded the story's rating - it is now rated "R"; Blues says the "f word", and also later on in the story there will certain situations of a rated-R nature. ^^;;; 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**Chapter 7 - Maximus Proximitas**

Black and empty. Silent and cold. Nothingness...  
  
**---SYSTEM STARTUP INITIATING---  
READING PWRMNGMNT.PRO  
READING STARTUP.PRO  
.................  
.................  
LOADING WILY.EXE  
LOADING VIS.EXE  
LOADING EMOT.EXE  
LOADING HYPER.EXE  
LOADING SYSCHK.EXE  
LOADING SYSSCN.EXE  
LOADING SHUTDOWN.EXE  
  
---SYSTEM STARTUP COMPLETE---**  
  
**PING!**  
  
I opened my eyes. Closed them. Opened them again.  
  
_Why the hell is it so dark...?_  
  
Put a hand to my face. A shield...tapped it with my fingers. Some sort of visor.  
  
_Can I turn it on?_  
  
"System scan - .EXE and .PRO."  
  
**---SCAN COMMENCING...---  
...............  
...............  
...............  
---SCAN COMPLETE. LIST ALL RESULTS?---**  
  
"Yes."  
  
**---LISTING...---  
EXECUTABLES  
WILY.EXE  
VIS.EXE  
EMOT.EXE  
HYPER.EXE  
PWRMNGMNT.EXE  
STARTUP.EXE  
SYSCHK.EXE  
SYSSCN.EXE  
SHUTDOWN.EXE  
PROTOCOLS  
WILY.PRO  
VIS.PRO  
EMOT.PRO  
HYPER.PRO  
PWRMNGMNT.PRO  
STARTUP.PRO  
SYSCHK.PRO  
SYSSCN.PRO  
SHUTDOWN.PRO  
---END LIST---**  
  
_VIS...worth a shot._ "Run VIS.EXE."  
  
**---RUNNING VIS.EXE...---**  
  
Suddenly, the visor came alive, numbers and letters flashing across it...the visor itself was like a mini-screen. My optics scanned the data, which showed me everything from the room's schematics to all carbon-based life forms as well as detailed summaries on all findings in the room. It also showed me, to the sides of the screen, what was to my immediate left and right. Not only that, but by telling the program certain commands, I discovered that I could also look around behind, above and below me; the visor also provided me, when I commanded it to, a sort of x-ray vision, so I could see through various solid objects. Using this vision mode, I could see all the circuits and chips of the various machines surrounding the small room.  
  
I focused my vision on a small lab rat in a nearby cage. The visor showed me a heat scan of the rat and identified all its organs and internal systems. I deduced, from looking around the room, that I was in a small examining room of some sort.  
  
But...where exactly was I? And, more importantly...  
  
_...who_ was I?  
  
I accessed my memory banks, for I felt as though they would tell me something. But when I tried to access them, I received a strange message.  
  
**---ACCESSED DENIED. PASSWORD NEEDED. INPUT?---**  
  
I needed a password to access my own memory banks? Something wasn't right here.  
  
_Well,_ I thought, _maybe I can use another of my resources to try and figure out who I am._ I already knew I was an android. But who was my creator? What was my purpose, my function? What was my call number?  
  
My call number...  
  
"System scan!! Analysis!!!"  
  
**---SCAN COMMENCING...---  
.....................  
.....................  
.....................  
---SCAN COMPLETE. LIST ANALYSIS?---**  
  
"Yes, yes, for God's sake, _YES!!!_"  
  
**---LISTING RESULTS...---  
................  
---PROGRAM ERROR. FAULT CAUSED IN WILY.EXE, MODULE 344579. ACCESS DENIED. PASSWORD NEEDED. INPUT NOW?---**  
  
"GOD DAMMIT!!" Frustrated, I pounded my fist on the cold steel table, hearing my voice echo and resound off of the white walls surrounding me.  
  
**---"GOD DAMMIT" - INCORRECT PASSWORD. RETRY?---**  
  
"..............fuck you."  
  
**---"FUCK YOU" - INCORRECT PASSWORD. RETRY?---**  
  
_Oh, for crying out loud._ I put my fingertips to forehead...or at least I tried. I felt a helmet surrounding my head like a metallic bubble.  
  
**---PASSWORD INPUT - RETRY?---**  
  
_What the...oh, right._ Wearily, I responded with a weak "No." Then, from somewhere to my left, a door slid open. I sat up and turned to see who it was.  
  
It was a human male, old by human standards, probably fifty-four years of age. He was wearing a white lab coat, with a dark, mauve-colored shirt and blue trousers, which were adorned with a black belt that had a skull-shaped belt buckle, and brown loafers. He also had cold black eyes, which seemed...hollow somehow...empty, devoid of all emotion...as well as thinning gray hair that was in an odd hairstyle. It kind of resembled two giant spiky tufts of grass growing on either side of his head; in between the two tufts was no hair at all - the man was as bald as a cueball. If I squinted real hard, I could see the light from the ceiling fixtures glinting off of his baldness; I couldn't help but smirk slightly. At this, the man glared daggers at me, and I shut up quickly.  
  
He approached my table. "Do you find something...humorous...about my appearance..._robot???_"  
  
His voice was acid, poisoning my ears; I winced. The way he called me "robot"...it made it sound like a horrible term...so derogatory. I hated being called that. The way he talked to me in that vitriolic tone...it hurt me terribly, although I couldn't understand why. I had never met this man before in my life....or had I? I couldn't tell, since I wasn't allowed to access my memory banks. Because this seemed odd, I had a pretty good feeling that I had met this man once before...but I couldn't place where or when.  
  
"_Well???_" I had forgotten to answer him.  
  
"No, sir," I said crisply.  
  
The man's cold black eyes narrowed. "Good."  
  
"Excuse me, sir?"  
  
"What is it?" he snapped.  
  
"Well, sir...I was just wondering, sir...er...who exactly _are you_, sir?"  
  
"Me? You idiot, I am your creator - Dr. Wily!!"  
  
_Wily...?_ That name....I had definitely heard it before...a new term surfaced from somewhere in the depths of my hidden memory...somehow this name came to mind...  
  
_Uncle...Albert?_  
  
Who was "Uncle Albert"? I was going to ask Dr. Wily, but then decided against it. It was just as well, because the minute I remembered that name, I forgot it again. I shook my head slightly as though to clear it. Now I was aware of Dr. Wily's hateful stare.  
  
"What?" he barked.  
  
I cringed. "Oh...n-nothing, sir..." I spluttered quickly. I didn't want him to call me that "r" word again. Then, seeing that Dr. Wily didn't buy my answer of "nothing", I just as quickly replied,  
  
"Well, it's just that...I think I've heard that name before."  
  
Wily's lip curled into a sneer. "Well, you _should_ have," he drawled. "It's etched into your CPU."  
  
"Okay...but....sir, who am _I_, exactly?"  
  
"As I said before, you are my creation."  
  
"Well...yes, but...but what is my call number? When I tried to access my memory banks and perform a system analysis I--"  
  
Saying this turned out to be a huge mistake, as Wily's eyes flared with rage. He jumped closer to the table I was sitting on, grabbed me by the shoulders, and roughly spun me around; then he proceeded to shake me hard until I thought my head would topple from my shoulders.  
  
"YOU DID _WHAT_?!" he roared, and I shrank back. "HOW _DARE_ YOU?! YOU ARE NEVER ALLOWED TO DO THESE THINGS!! EVER!! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!"  
  
"Yes!" I whimpered. "Yes, sir!!"  
  
"No!!" thundered Dr. Wily. "Not 'sir' - _MASTER_!!!"  
  
"Yes..." I whispered. "Yes...._master_..."  
  
"Master _what_?" hissed Dr. Wily icily.  
  
I was at a loss. I didn't know what he wanted me to say...  
  
Suddenly, Dr. Wily withdrew a small pocket device from his lab coat. At the end of it were two short prongs.  
  
_Hey...that kind of looks like a plug--AAAAAAAAHHH!!!!_  
  
It was terrible pain, shooting all throughout my body. I dimly realized that what had just happened was Dr. Wily had just given me a small electric shock. Being an android entirely made out of metal, even the smallest of volts can severely hurt me. I fell back onto the steel table, panting and whimpering. Dr. Wily grabbed me by a bunch of yellow fabric that was draped around my neck, shoulders, and chest and yanked me up, pulling me so close to his face that our noses were touching; I'm sure he probably saw his own reflection staring back at him in my visor.  
  
"Master....WILY!!!" he bellowed, and at "WILY!!!" he threw me back down. He then leaned over me, blocking out the light with his head. "You will call me 'Master Wily'!! Do you understand me, robot?!"  
  
That word again...I winced. This time, Master Wily must have noticed it, because he grinned wickedly.  
  
"Oh....what's the matter? Don't like it when I call you that..._robot_?" I squeezed my eyes shut and shook my head vigorously back and forth. But Wily pretended he was blind.  
  
"I'm sorry...did you answer me..._robot_??" This was too much...I didn't know why it hurt me so much to hear this man utter just a simple word such as that, but it did, and I hated it.  
  
"Please..." I whispered. "Please....Master Wily..."  
  
Now the man was deaf, too. "I'm sorry...what was that? I didn't quite catch that..._robot_..."  
  
"PLEASE, MASTER WILY!!" I said loudly.  
  
Master Wily straightened himself. "Good," he said gruffly. "Now get up and follow me. I'm going to give you instructions for your first assignment."  
  
I wanted more than anything to be able to curl up in a ball, close my eyes, and rest...but I had learned the hard way that when you disobeyed Master Wily, you got hurt. So instead, I summoned all my strength and shakily sat up, then slid from the table and quickly followed Master Wily.  
  
But I still didn't know my own name. I decided to forget about my call number. Obviously it was something that Master Wily didn't want me to know, although I didn't know why. The same thing was with my memory banks; what was locked away inside my mind that was so dangerous to access?  
  
As we walked along and I pondered this, I absent-mindedly began touching the bit of yellow fabric around my neck. I looked down at it.  
  
_Oh, it's just my scarf that I received as a gift._  
  
I blinked, startled, but I kept on walking; there was no telling _what_ Master Wily would do to me if I suddenly stopped in the middle of the hall. But I had done it...I had remembered something without inputting a damned password. I tried desperately to recall who gave me the scarf and why...but I could only remember that it was a gift to me. I decided to forget about it for now and to instead concentrate fully on whatever it was that Master Wily was going to have me do.  
  
Along our journey, I noticed that this place, wherever it was, was extremely bleak. There wasn't a lot of color...the walls were mostly all shades of gray, except for the dashes of neon lighting here and there, and the glow of various machinery. After about five more minutes of walking, we finally arrived at another room. Master Wily pressed a keypad and the door slid open, revealing a long wooden table and various chairs. At the head of the table was a larger, more cushy chair, which was black in color and had a large silver "Dr. W" symbol painted on the back cushion.  
  
Seated in the other smaller (and less comfortable-looking) chairs, however, were six figures. When we entered the room, I realized that they were all androids, like me. I was going to run the visor program to find out all about them, but I decided against it, afraid that Master Wily might punish me again. So I merely took up an empty seat and waited for instructions from Master Wily.  
  
The droid sitting next to me was giving me odd glances, so I finally turned my head to look at him. His face was obscured by a yellow mask that had a lightning bolt on its top half. He was staring at me as if he recognized me...and I had to admit, he looked pretty familiar, too. It was as though I was looking into the eyes of an old friend long forgotten. The droid peered at me with blue optics and looked as though he were about to say something, when Master Wily took his place at the head of the table and began to speak.  
  
"Now that all of us are assembled here, I can begin talking over my plans with you. My main goal is, quite simply, world domination. However, I need you seven to help me accomplish this task. You six - Cutman, Gutsman, Iceman, Bombman, Fireman, and Elecman - will be in charge of destroying and occupying various key points in the country. And you -" Master Wily pointed at me. "-will be their commander. You will instruct them on what to do. You are in charge of their every action."  
  
I stiffened. So, Master Wily was putting _me_ in charge of this little group. It sounded okay, but it also gave me a huge responsibility...I wasn't sure I was ready for such a task, but Master Wily had enough faith in me to assign me to the feat, so I accepted it.  
  
I would not let him down, no matter what.  
  
"Yes, Master Wily." I bowed my head.  
  
"Good," said Master Wily. "Now I will debrief you six on where you are to be stationed. You may leave until I call for you again," he said to me. I stood, nodded, and turned to exit. But there was still something on my mind.  
  
"Master Wily...? What...what is _my_ name? You mentioned the names of these others...but what about _me_?"  
  


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  
  
I exited the room and stood by the door, awaiting Master Wily's call for me. As I leaned against the monotone wall, I reflected on what Master Wily had just told me.  
  
He had, indeed, told me what my name was, but it looked to me as though he hadn't decided on what it was until I asked him about it that very moment. It seemed to me as if he had just come up with my name spur of the moment. Or maybe I was just being paranoid...  
  
In any case, I now knew what my name was, as well as my first assignment. I was to be the commander for a group of six androids, and under my guidance we would assist Master Wily in taking over the world. I had briefly wondered why anyone would want to take over the world, but immediately stopped; it didn't matter _why_ Master Wily wanted to do it. What mattered were the orders he gave me; I _had_ to obey them - it was a part of my programming. But there was something else, too, that drove me to obey Master Wily...a strong sense of loyalty, I suppose, although I wasn't quite sure why I felt it. This was the man who had hurt me, who treated me like dirt...and yet I still wanted nothing more than to please him. It was odd, but I didn't question it.  
  
Instead I thought about my name and what it could possibly mean. My name suggested that I was a beta for predeceasing androids. If that were true, did that make me the first android ever? If Master Wily did indeed build me and the other six, did that mean we were brothers? It seemed logical, plus it also explained why that droid, who I remembered was named "Elecman", looked so familiar. Perhaps he resembled me a bit...it made sense. So my name meant I was the very first android ever built...  
  
My name, which Master Wily gave to me...  
  
My name, which meant I was the blueprints for many of my kind...  
  
My name...  
  
Protoman.... 


	9. Authoress Notes

Authoress' Notes 2  
  
Calling all readers of EH! I want to make an audio recording of Ebony Heaven, but...my reading sounds dumb. o_O;; So! I'm calling upon my readers to help me out - I'm accepting auditions for the characters' voices! ^_^   
  
I need voices for the following characters:  
  
Blues  
  
Dr. Light  
  
Dr. Wily (people auditioning for him better put on a German accent!)  
  
Carrie (Dr. Light's wife and Wily's sister)  
  
Sarah (Dr. Wily's wife)  
  
Rock  
  
Xavier (Dr. Wily's son)  
  
Elecman  
  
Bombman  
  
Cutman  
  
Gutsman  
  
Iceman  
  
Fireman  
  
Roll  
  
That's it for now, since these are the only characters so far. Once more characters become available, you can apply for those, too. If you want to do more than one voice, just say so.  
  
If you want to be a character, just send me a voice sample; you must read one of the lines that the character you're applying for said in the story. The line can come from any chapter. Girls can play guys parts and vice-versa.  
  
People who are auditioning for Blues, be warned now - you are auditioning for the main role; that means that in addition to reading Blues' lines, you'll also be reading the entire narrative part. ^^;;  
  
If you are auditioning for a part, send the voice sample to:  
  
sailorgalaxy@snip.net  
  
Make sure the subject line reads something like , "EH Audition". In your e-mail make sure you tell me the name of the character that you're auditioning for. The deadline for voice auditions is Saturday, August 9th. Please don't forget to read my DeadJournal (http://www.deadjournal.com/~kitnee) for updates concerning the voice acting!!! 


	10. HalfAssed Exscuses

aimg/a 

Well well...it's me yet again here with another half-assed exscuse as to where I've been for over a year. ^^;;;  
  
I suppose it would do no good in asking for forgiveness from you guys - I'm not sure how many of my readers have left, but I would understand if that was the case. For those of you who _have_ been patient enough to continue watching Ebony Heaven for updates, thanks a million; really. ^_^ And now for the half-assed exscuses!  
  
There are actually a lot of reasons, first and foremost a mix of writer's block and laziness. I haven't been in a "Rockman mood", so I haven't been inspired to write anything as of late. In addition, I have recently started college, which has left me no time to write. For those of you who keep up with my DeadJournal (), you'll see a lot of things have been making my life a living hell, the most recent of which my grandmother passing away.  
  
I've also just started a new job working at the bank, so that's gonna be a little hectic till I can get myself straightened out. I still need to get my license, but I know what I need to do now in order to _get_, so I'll hopefully be applying for one very soon.  
  
In addition, my home network has decided to take a nose dive on me, which means that I cannot access the internet via my own computer, where the story is saved to. That doesn't mean, however, that I won't be able to write anymore. I'll still write, but I'll just have to update from this computer, that's all. Well, until I can get the network fixed; who knows how long _that'll_ take. ^^;;  
  
I really must apologize to all of my readers for being away for so long and not saying a word about the story. I _will_, however, be continuing the story; I'm not _that_ mean as to leave you all hanging like that (no worries, Flaming Coffeepot of Doom, I'm still gonna be wqriting ^^). ^_~ Can't say when the next chapter will be up, though, but hopefully it will be up soon.  
  
If you'd like, I can set up an e-mail list to let you know when I actually update the fic. For those of you who are interested and want me to e-mail them for fanfic updates (or hell, if you just wanna talk or something; I don't bite), just send me an e-mail over at **sailorgalaxy@snip.net**.  
  
Until then, I've got a chapter to contemplate. Ja.  
  
~.Jo-chan 

aimg/a 


	11. Mission Start

Well, here we are yet again, eh, minna? A year after its last update, Ebony Heaven has a new chapter. The whole idea of the story being read aloud by its readers has seemed to fall through, however, but now I'm considering a new project; given my current state of affairs, it may remain on the back burner for a little while longer, but with spring break coming up in a month, it might just happen. I'm not too shabby an artist, and I was thinking about making Ebony Heaven into a manga, so everyone would get to see the story as well as read it. However, it may or may not happen any time soon, but it's still an idea that has actually been on my mind ever since EH got off the ground. So, with any luck, the manga version of EH won't be too far off into the horizon; I may even start sketching out the first chapter after I post this one. And now, on with Chapter 8 of Ebony Heaven.  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**Chapter 8 - Mission Start**

"Enter, Protoman."  
  
The door slid open as I approached it. Once again, I was standing face-to-face with Master Wily, who was still seated in his chair; however, he had his back to me this time.  
  
"You called, Master Wily?"  
  
"Yes." He turned in his chair so that he was now facing me. "It is time for your first assignment. I have already sent out your brothers to various parts of the world, and as we speak they are setting up their bases in their respective assigned points."  
  
"Excuse me, sir, but…weren't your original plans to send each of the androids to different parts of the _country_? Why did you change your plan?"  
  
Master Wily's cold eyes narrowed at me, as if I had dared to say anything at all. I stiffened, awaiting his inevitable yell. But, surprisingly, he did not yell; he did not even raise his voice. Instead, he merely clasped his hands together and said to me, "I merely felt that a change was in order. If I want to conquer the entire world, then I will need more than a few key points in this country alone; I'll need strongholds in various points of the world itself. That way, I'll be able to gain more ground in less time; do you see what I'm saying?"  
  
I nodded. It did seem like an excellent plan now that I thought about it. I bowed my head.  
  
"Please forgive me, Master Wily. I did not mean to step out of line. Please, continue; I will not interrupt you again."  
  
Master Wily twisted his mouth into a crooked smile. "That's quite all right, Protoman. Now then, listen up - here is your first assignment." He turned his chair around again, but this time he pressed a small button on the control panel at the front of the long table. When he did, a large digital map of the world was displayed on a screen opposite of Master Wily's seat. On the map were six red dots, which I assumed were the positions of the other androids.  
  
Master Wily confirmed my assumption. "Do you see these dots, Protoman? These dots represent the places where the others have been stationed. What I need you to do is oversee these places. You know, make sure that the others aren't screwing things up, as they most likely _will_. There is a control room a few doors down from this one, which has an array of monitors and other equipment. From that room, you can survey the others' positions without having to actually go to those places. Your fellow robots are already well-equipped with the necessary arsenal to deal with any…interferences…should they present themselves, so you need not worry about going to assist the others."  
  
Actually, I hadn't been worried about the others _at all_. Why _should_ I care about what happened to them? If they messed things up, the fault was theirs, and Master Wily would punish _them_, not _me_.  
  
"Oh, and by the way, Protoman…since you _are_ the one advising them, if any _one_ of them fails in their task, _you_ are the one I am holding responsible; do I make myself clear?"  
  
Well, there went _that_ theory, although Master Wily _did_ have a logical point. After all, _I_ was the one controlling the others' moves, so if one of them failed, it was indeed _my_ fault for executing a poorly made plan. I certainly didn't want Master Wily to punish me again, so I had to make absolutely sure that not one of the androids failed.  
  
If _they_ were not successful, then _I_ was not successful. And if _that_ happened, then I would disappoint Master Wily, which could _never_ happen; I could _never_ disappoint Master Wily. I _would_ never disappoint him. I silently vowed to myself that I would do whatever it took to uphold this statement.  
  
"…Protoman…?"  
  
I gasped and sharply raised my head. "Yes…sir?"  
  
"Do I make myself clear or not, you fool?!" he shouted. I cringed.  
  
"Yes, sir. I understand completely."  
  
Master Wily leaned back in his chair, satisfied. "Good." He turned his chair so that its back was facing me, and pointed toward the door. "Now go. And remember, Protoman - you may be monitoring the other Robot Masters, but _I_ am monitoring _you_." I nodded and exited the room.  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I found my way to the control room. When I entered it, I was greeted with a plethora of machines, all blinking and flashing with electricity. I sat in the only chair in the entire room, which was seated in front of an array of monitors, just as Master Wily had said. To my sides was a set of control panels that operated the monitors and communications devices. I activated one of the many switches, and one of the monitors came online. I was now able to see the position of one of the androids.  
  
From the looks of the place, it already resembled a construction area of some sort. However, whichever android that was stationed here had also done a few modifications of his own. By activating another switch on my right, I opened up the communications channel with the android.  
  
"Hello? Come in - this is your commander Protoman speaking."  
  
There was a bit of static on the other line, but then the android's face appeared on screen. This android was red and black, with a Metool's helmet atop his head, as well as a protruding lower jaw. When he spoke, his voice was low and rumbling, like that of a crane or other construction machine.  
  
"Yessir, Protoman, sir. Gutsman reporting."  
  
So, this one's name was Gutsman? I briefly remembered Master Wily mentioning his name earlier on in the day, when the eight of us had all assembled in the conference room.  
  
"Gutsman…status report."  
  
"Well, everything's going according to Master Wily's plan so far, boss. He told each of us to build our own bases once we arrived at our respective spots, so I got to work just like he told me to."  
  
"So I've seen…good work, Gutsman. And have you encountered any sort of trouble?"  
  
"Naw…the guards were easy enough to take out, heh heh. They _tried_ resisting me, but their efforts were pretty poor, I gotta tell ya. It was easy gettin' rid of 'em. After I took care of 'em, I started remodelin' their base here."  
  
"Good," I said. But then Gutsman looked at me sheepishly.  
  
"There's just one tiny little problem, boss."  
  
My eyes narrowed behind my visor. "…what…_kind_ of a problem, Gutsman?"  
  
Gutsman sensed my displeasure and quickly waved his hands in front of his face. "Oh!! W-well, it's nothing _too_ serious, boss, just a pesky security door that I couldn't get through...and it kinda leads to the main entrance of the entire facility."  
  
"A security door? Surely you, Gutsman, with your impressive strength, should have no problem getting past an insignificant door."  
  
"Ah, well…that's what _I_ thought, too, boss…but when I tried breakin' it down, this emergency security system popped on an' just made it worse. It was askin' fer a password an' stuff. It also looks like there's some sorta card slot or somethin'. I guess you need a keycard to get inside."  
  
"Imbecile…" I muttered under my breath. "Give me the coordinates of this security door, I'll see what I can do from here."  
  
"S-sure thing, boss," said Gutsman, and he sent me the coordinates. I had discovered that there was also a navigation system built into the control panel that would allow me to view other parts of the place via coordinates. I focused on the security door, and there was indeed a security card slot, just as Gutsman had said. From what Gutsman had told me, I assessed that you not only needed a keycard to gain access, but a password as well. Without a moment's hesitation, I focused back on Gutsman.  
  
"Gutsman, where did you stow the guards?"  
  
"Oh, them? I put 'em in one of the outdoor holding cells that's used fer construction supplies an' stuff, an' I locked 'em all in real good." He grinned stupidly and looked proud of himself; I merely rolled my eyes, but they were hidden behind my visor.  
  
Ah, the joys of that visor…one of its many benefits is that it allows you to hide your eyes from others, which also allows you to obscure your expression. That way, no one can tell if you're frightened, or worried, or any other embarrassing and unnecessary emotion.  
  
_Tounikaku…_ [In any case…]  
  
"Well, I want you to go back to that cell." Gutsman merely blinked at me stupidly, and started at me with a vacant expression.  
  
"Uhhh…but…_why_, boss?"  
  
Despite the visor across my face, somehow Gutsman was able to see me glaring at him, because he shifted uncomfortably.  
  
"I-it was just a…question, sir…"  
  
I smiled. "You're absolutely _right_, Gutsman; it _was_ just a question. And now, _I_ have a question for _you_."  
  
Gutsman's face brightened. "Yeah, boss?"  
  
"Well, Gutsman, what I want to know is…WERE YOU _PROGRAMMED_ THIS STUPID OR DID YOU HAVE TO _WORK_ AT IT?! YOU DON'T QUESTION MY ORDERS, YOU DOLT, YOU JUST DO THEM, UNDERSTAND?!"  
  
Even though Gutsman is a large android, he was still able to leap straight up for quite an impressive distance.  
  
"Y-yes, sir!! I understand, sir!! Please forgive me, sir!! I'll go without another delay, sir!!" And with that, he took off as fast as his large, bulky frame would allow him. In the meantime, I leaned back in my seat, my temper slowly dying down. That idiot…he didn't realize it, but his success was the key to my own; if _he_ failed, _I_ failed, and I couldn't let that happen. I didn't want Master Wily to punish me again, nor did I want to disappoint him.  
  
Suddenly, a most terrifying thought crossed my mind. It occurred to me that the old saying of "Ignorance is bliss" was most certainly correct. If I let the other androids know that I would get in trouble if they failed, then they might rise up against me and _purposely_ fail in order to hurt me, or even try to destroy me with their _own_ hands. I was fairly sure that none of them was _that_ intelligent, but nonetheless, I still worried; I could _not_ let them find out. I _had_ to maintain authority over the others so that they would be too afraid of me to question or oppose me. That way, my safety was assured.  
  
"…sir? Are you there? Sir? Protoman??"  
  
I was jolted out of my train of thought by the throaty voice of Gutsman. Annoyed, I snapped, "What is it?!" Gutsman visibly winced, and I smiled grimly. It was nice to see someone _else_ cringing for a change, and, even better, because of _me_. I wrung my hands together as I watched Gutsman.  
  
"I-it's just that…I went back to the cell, just as you ordered me to. Now what?"  
  
"Now go _in_, you idiot," I said acidly. Gutsman winced again, and opened the door, which he had crudely barred by placing a girder he had twisted between the handles of the two doors. Impressed by his strength, I grimly thought of just what he could do to _my_ body if he ever opposed me. I grimaced and quickly snuffed the mental image from my mind, determined to never let that happen.  
  
Looking back at the monitor, I noticed that Gutsman had entered the cell, and piled in a heap were the bodies of the guards.  
  
"_Oi,_ Gutsman…are they…dead?"  
  
"Hn? Naw, they ain't dead, boss." He looked at me quizzically. "You know that we can't kill humans - it's programmed into us."  
  
I blinked, a blank expression on my face, which was thankfully halfway covered by my visor. No, I hadn't known that. I quickly called up my own system status, and was surprised to see that there was indeed a list of rules that prohibited an android from doing certain things, one of which was killing a human. It could be assumed, then, that we were allowed to _hurt_ humans, but killing them was forbidden. In addition, we were, by programming, not allowed to even _think_ about hurting our creator, let alone even _touch_ him; he was the only human that had an exception to the "hurting, but no killing" rule.  
  
"Well," I said, bringing myself from this reverie, "that's good. Now then…here is what I need you to do, Gutsman. Examine each and every one of these humans until you find a keycard; being guards, they're bound to have keycards to get into that security door."  
  
Gutsman's face brightened. "Hey, great idea, boss!" he quipped. I started at him nonchalantly.  
  
"Of course it is," I drawled. "That's why Master Wily put _me_ in charge of the six of _you_; now get to work."  
  
"You got it, Protoman, sir!"  
  
Surprisingly, it didn't take Gutsman very long to find and acquire a keycard. Now the only thing that we needed was a password. I figured that the people weren't stupid enough to have the password anywhere on the card, so it would just have to be a guessing game, which would take too much time. There had to be another way to find out what the password was…  
  
It was then that I noticed something on the human that Gutsman had taken the card from. The man was wearing a gold band around one of his fingers. Racking my memory banks, I thought back on Master Wily. He, too, had been wearing one of the gold bands; they must have symbolized something…but what? I squeezed my eyes shut tight and thought, trying desperately to remember something, anything…I was certain that those gold bands had a very large importance.  
  
I had just started to remember something when Gutsman's voice cut into my thoughts, causing me to forget everything I had just started to remember. Livid because I had come so close to remembering something, I shouted at Gutsman, causing the larger android to quiver in fear.  
  
"_G-gomen nasai! S-sumimasen kudasai, Protoman-san!!_ [I-I'm sorry! P-please excuse me, Mr. Protoman!!] It's just that I found these pictures on the human! In addition to the keycard, they were also in the little pouch that I took from him!"  
  
I narrowed my eyes, still annoyed at losing my already faded memories. "What kind of pictures? Show them to me!"  
  
Gutsman shakily held up the pictures so that I could see them. They were all different - in a few, there were simple portrait shots of smaller humans, and in one was another portrait of a woman. In the last one, the guard, the woman, and the two smaller humans were all together, happy and smiling. For some reason, it caused a great pang of loneliness and want in me, although I didn't know why. The entire scene of these happy humans sparked something poignant in me, but I shook my head slightly and thought.  
  
It was obvious that this guard cared about the woman and the small humans, considering the way he was smiling. _Perhaps, then…_I suddenly had a brilliant idea.  
  
"Gutsman! Check those photos to see if there's any sort of writing on them! If there is, it would be on the backs of the pictures."  
  
Gutsman awkwardly pulled out the pictures from their places in the wallet, and flipped them over. Suddenly, his face lit up with excitement.  
  
"Ah!! You were right, Protoman-san! There _is_ writing on the backs of these!!"  
  
"Well? What do they say?"  
  
At this request, Gutsman's face slackened. "I…I don't know, sir..." he said sheepishly. "I…I can't read. It's not in my programming…"  
  
_Of course…_ I sighed. "Fine…then turn them around so that _I_ can take a look at them." Gutsman happily complied, and I was able to see what the inscriptions on the backs of the pictures said.  
  
On the back of the first picture, which featured one of the smaller humans, the writing said, "Rin"; on the back of the picture of the other small human it read, "Takage"; the woman's picture read, "My darling Tessa"; finally, on the group shot, the writing read "Christmas with the family", as well as a year, which was smudged.  
  
Christmas…this word also stirred something in me…it was a very familiar word. But it would have to wait…I had orders to follow.  
  
"Gutsman…bring those pictures, as well as the keycard, back to the security door with you. I will tell you what to do from there."  
  
"Yessir!" said Gutsman, and he made his way back to the security door, locking the cell back up with the girder by freshly bending it back into shape. I inwardly shuddered as I again imagined the girder as myself, but once again quickly took the image from my mind.  
  
When Gutsman got back to the security door, I told him to swipe the keycard through the small machine that had the card slot. He did so, and the emergency security systems were instantly shut down. Then it asked for a password, as Gutsman had said earlier. I thought back to the pictures. My theory was that the guard had used one of the names of these other humans as his password; however, _which_ human was hard to say. I recalled the different inscriptions on the backs of the pictures. After a moment's worth of thought, I deduced that the password had to be the name of the woman - the man had shown extreme caring toward her by using the phrase "my darling".  
  
"Gutsman! Type in the following: T E S S A!"  
  
"B-but, boss!! I can't _read_, remember?"  
  
"Oh, for crying out loud!" I muttered; it had totally slipped my mind. In frustration, I slammed my fist down on one of the control panels. I must have hit another button, because at that moment, a keypad slid out from the edge of the panel. Surprised, I stared at it, but dimly realized that with this, I could access the security door's program and type in the password myself; it also hit me at that moment that I could have merely hacked into the door's program and manually have overridden the program to open the door. I could have also disabled the emergency security system, as well have done about one hundred other things, and we wouldn't have had to go through this big production. Cursing myself for not thinking about the keypad earlier, I typed in the supposed password.  
  
My hunch had been right, and the security door slid open with ease. _Now_ I was ready this time. I told Gutsman to stay still, and began hacking into the system. It turned out that the place was littered with traps, just in case of an intruder, but they were easy to disable. Once everything was shut down security-wise, it was easy for Gutsman to go in and take control over the rest of the building.  
  
"I will leave the rest to you, Gutsman, but contact me in case of further problems."  
  
"Yessir!" And his face was gone.  
  
I leaned back in my chair; it had been a success, and nothing had gone wrong. Gutsman had completed his mission. Relieved, I smiled weakly, glad that it was over. However, I realized that Master Wily would not like it if he caught me resting, so I quickly sat up straight, turned back to the control panels, and began my second mission.  
[Authoress Follow-up: In the future, the missions that Protoman goes through will not be a chapter's worth by themselves; Gutsman's was only this long because it needed to introduce certain aspects of the story. UPDATE: I've gotten a LiveJournal for updating purposes! But for some reason FF.net isn't letting me write the URL here, even without the URL HTML tags. Just go to **livejournal.com** and look for the user **shika_exe**; that's the journal. Please make sure you read through the first entry. I know it's long, but it has some important info in it. I'll still give you the option of receiving e-mail updates, though, so if you'd like to know when updates to the story are completed, just e-mail your e-mail address to me at **sailorgalaxy@snip.net**.] 


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